Book Review: The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
- flora183
- Apr 14
- 1 min read
The Enchanted April is a charming story which follows four despondent London women who have each become strangers to themselves, and rediscover themselves at the castle of San Salvatore on the Italian riviera where they holiday for the month of April, sometime in the 1920s.
In grimy post-war London lonely housewives, Lotty Wilkins and Rose Arbuthnot notice each other staring at the same advertisement in the paper offering a fifteenth century castle for rent. Noticing they are each keen but neither can afford it alone, they agree to rent it together until they realise it’s even more expensive than they thought and advertise for two more to join them.
Aged Mrs Fisher (played by Joan Plowright in the 1991 film version) is stern and disapproving. Aristocratic Lady Caroline Dester is utterly fed up of society and everyone.
Both initially isolate themselves from the other guests until Lotty’s good nature and the sun-soaked beauty of San Salvatore weave their magic and the ladies all begin to unfurl.
Enter various gentlemen – husbands, landlords - stage left, right and centre! And the picture of loveliness, romance and happiness is complete.
A sweet, simple little novel from which we can all learn a great deal, that sometimes less is more.
Thank you to my neighbour Brenda who gave me this lovely book as a birthday present. I was aware of it but had never read it and it brought a much-needed ray of Italian sunshine to an typically mixed April in London.
