The Enchanted April

What It's About

Two unhappy London housewives, Lotty Wilkins and Rose Arbuthnot, answer a newspaper advertisement for a medieval castle on the Italian coast, available to rent for the month of April. Short of money and companionship, they split the cost by recruiting two more women: the formidable, elderly Mrs Fisher and the beautiful, world-weary Lady Caroline Dester. Four very different personalities arrive at San Salvatore, and the sunshine, flowers and sea air begin to loosen the habits and resentments they brought with them. It is a light, gently satirical comedy of manners, told with plenty of humour and a lot of affection for its characters.

Key Concepts

The novel is built around escape and renewal, with Italy as a place where people can step outside their usual roles. It looks closely at marriage and the quiet disappointments within it, and at female friendship and independence in the years after the First World War. Beauty and nature are treated as genuinely restorative, and the contrasts of age, class and temperament among the four women drive much of the comedy. Some readers have dismissed it as pleasant escapism, while others find sharper social observation beneath the charm.

About the Author

Elizabeth von Arnim was born Mary Annette Beauchamp in Sydney and raised in England. Her first marriage, to a Prussian count, took her to his estate in Pomerania, where she lived for many years and began to write. She was known for witty, observant fiction about the lives of women and the constraints of marriage. After her husband's death she married a second time, lived in England, Switzerland and the south of France, and eventually settled in the United States, where she died in 1941.