The Enchanted April

A Case of Stendhal’s Syndrome?

Set in the 1920s , The Enchanted April is a story of four English women’s vacation in a castle on the Italian Riviera and the effect the beauty of the castle, the vistas, and more especially its gardens have on them.

One of the women, a Mrs Wilkins is clearly overwhelmed by the beauty of the place and has a spiritual transformation, similar to that of George Harrison when he “found himself” in India in the mid sixties.

So sure is Ms Wilkins that all you need is love, that she telegrams her husband who she previously feared and felt was cold, asking him to join her. Surely he too would feel the love. Mrs Wilkins’ bliss is contagious, so much so that she persuades her friend Mrs Arbuthnot to do the show more same.

The other members of the group, Lady Caroline Dester and Mrs Fisher who are both “spinsters”, appear less affected, though Lady Caroline becomes more self-aware. She is more able to come to terms with her own beauty, which has so far been a hindrance in her young life. Mrs Fisher, who is considered ancient at 65 and who is still stuck in the Victorian era remains somewhat immune, though she occasionally has feelings she can’t quite work out.

As for the two husbands, von Arnim has little time for the men. Mr Wilkins becomes warmer toward his wife as his feelings for the female sex are rekindled by the beauty of Lady Caroline if not the garden. And Mr Arbuthnott sees that Mrs Arbuthnott has a sex appeal that he has been unaware of for many a year.

Which leave the main character in the book, the garden. As an avid gardner myself, I delighted in the long paragraphs describing in exquisite detail, the different flowers and shrubs, and their placement around the castle, and in some cases around the individual women when they act as shields allowing the individual women to revel in their solitudes.

The writing is crisp and humorous. The class distinctions separate Mrs Fisher and Lady Caroline Dester from the Mrs Wilkins and Mrs Arbuthnot, the former clearly seeing the other women as “below them”. But what the women have in common is that they are not men.

The men in the novel appear as necessary appendages. Accessories. Accessories that are generally found wanting.

I came saw from the book intrigued by the author. I wanted to find out more, and did.

I’m glad that I discovered von Arnim. I thoroughly enjoyed The Enchanted April and rated it a deserving 4. show less

** spoiler alert ** It started out so well. And ended with my throwing the book across the bed, telling the cats and the dog: “I have had enough, I’m done here.” Four unacquainted women: three young, one older; two married (and not happy), one single and sick of the whole pairing-up game, and one widow. They are sharing a splendiferous Italian castle clotted with flowers at an impossibly gorgeous and gentle seaside, in order to escape, ponder, relax, wander, and maybe just have four weeks of happiness on holiday. They don’t particularly get along or understand one another; there are irritations and resentments. As the days unroll, we are privy to their contemplations, sadness, wonderings, memories, and thoughts of what they show more should or might do next. So far, so good - sometimes lovely, touching, sympathetic. They begin to unbend to each other a little, a friendship and even affection begins to blossom. And then one of them invites her husband to join them.

Uh-oh. And then the other married one does the same. It all turns silly and coy and gooey and all the subtlety and emotional insight goes out the window. One of the husbands is actively pursuing the impossibly lovely single woman (and she really is annoying and not credible), and she smoothly covers up for him. He remains infatuated, begging to kiss her shoes. And then he gushes that he can only love her more because she has “the loyalty of a man.” At which point I was finito.

After 60 pages, I was ready to look up other novels by von Arnim. Another 60 pages, and I scratched that idea. Her philosophy clearly is that a woman can only reach her fullest self through her relationship with a man, even when he is a skeevy, sneaky, conniving skunk. Even the cranky elder widow breaks out into kindness, tolerance, and a certain maternal charm when visited by the handsome, wealthy, boyish owner of the castle…who has, by the way, instantly jettisoned his appreciation for the gentle, retiring, unhappily-married woman the moment he lays eyes on the pretty one.

Just no. Ick. show less

Hardly believing their own daring, two women who barely know each other rent an Italian castle with the intention of leaving their husbands spending a month there. To defray the costs, they advertise for two others, and a very disparate quartet of strangers and near-strangers make their way to the Italian castle. Naturally, they bring a lot of baggage with them, and some of that baggage is their actual husbands turning up. With two of the women looking askance at the other two, and the other two barely noticing, somehow the enchantment does grow along with the flowers.

It's very funny, and also poignant. There are self-imposed prisons of misunderstanding, grief, age and even beauty, which this Italian holiday may help them break out of, show more if they can find the way. show less

Well, it's official. I have found my least favorite read of 2024.

This started out promisingly. It seemed to be shaping up to be a story about four women, from very different classes and backgrounds, who rent a villa in Italy together in order to have an actual honest to goodness vacation for once in their miserable lives.

I was delighted by this premise. I was delighted at the decent Goodreads ratings and all of the glowing reviews. I was delighted at the thought of the fulfillment and joy I would feel while witnessing these women, who otherwise wouldn't cross paths because of their class differences, become friends. And I was really looking forward to seeing what would happen when two of the women get to have a nice, temporary break show more from their odious husbands, and breathe the sweet, fresh air of freedom for a month in the villa. Everything about the beginning of the book was leading me to believe that this would be my reading experience.

That is NOT what happened.

Spoilers ahead: For starters, for nearly half of the book, Lady Caroline and Mrs. Fisher are awful to the other women. Truly insufferable. Which I would have been fine with, given the thought of them bonding by the end of the book. But what ultimately brings this group of ladies together isn't their relationships with one another as they bond gradually over time. No, what REALLY brings them together is THE MEN in their lives! Two of the women's husbands show up, both invited to Italy by their wives. And the one wife cannot even wait a whole DAY without needing to write to her husband to invite him to come to the villa post haste. Girl, you just escaped for some R&R with these women! Enjoy your freedom from your misery before you have to go back to England and continue to be married to him.

And don't get me wrong, I DID assume that everyone would still be married by the end of the book. After all, this was written in 1922. I just thought they would gain some independence and a stronger sense of identity. Then they might derive strength and support from their friendships with the other women, before returning to their husbands, better equipped to face the misery of their marital woes. I didn't think the husbands would be literally interrupting their girl time, though!

Now, you may be thinking, oh man, this book about four women's unlikely relationships got hijacked by the men in their lives? That's kind of a bummer. But it's not THAT bad.

Well, let me tell you, it gets worse.....

Because we find out that one of the husbands has been attempting to have an affair with Lady Caroline, not realizing that she is staying at the villa with his wife! So he goes to the villa to find Caroline and pursue her. NOT TO SEE HIS ACTUAL WIFE WHO INVITED HIM, JUST TO VISIT CAROLINE and convince her to carry on an affair with him, because she's super hot and he just can't help himself. When he realizes that his wife is there, their marriage problems magically disappear and he decides he wants to be married to his wife after all, or whatever, I guess. He is super nervous that Caroline will out him for his horrendous unfaithful behavior. Not because he’s feeling guilty for his behavior, noooo. Just worried that CAROLINE might decide to open her mouth and screw this new marital bliss up for him. When Caroline realizes what's going on, she decides to pretend that everything is fine and NOT tell his wife! He is so grateful to Caroline for being soooooo cool about things, and at one point he says something along the lines of her having "the loyalty of a man," like that's some sort of compliment. Just congratulating her on how cool she was being about this whole thing, while he DECEIVED HIS WIFE ABOUT WHY HE WAS EVEN AT THE VILLA IN THE FIRST PLACE.

This final event locked my hatred firmly in place, and solidified the 1 star rating, as well as the honor of worst read of 2024. The year isn’t even over yet, but this book is so awful that I am 100 percent certain that there isn’t a book that could possibly best its ability to be the worst. show less

In this story, set in 1922, Mrs. Lottie Wilkins and Mrs. Rose Arbuthnot become disenchanted with their husbands. Acting as feminists for their time, they plan to spend the month of April away from men at a castle named San Salvatore on the Italian Riviera. They advertise and then invite Lady Caroline “Scrap” Dester and Mrs. Fisher to share expenses. They aren’t there long when the beauty of San Salvatore so overcomes Lottie Wilkins that she decides to invite her husband to join them.

Mellersh Wilkins, Lottie’s husband, arrives and immediately sees that meeting the people who are sharing the castle with his wife can be good for his business as an attorney. He is thrilled about this enterprising opportunity, and Lottie perceives show more that Mellersh appreciates her more than he had been, and her marriage becomes more fulfilling. Lottie, described as blessedly impetuous, tries to convince Mrs. Arbuthnot to invite her husband. However, Mrs. Fisher and Lady Caroline, who are not using the getaway to escape husbands, are less than enthralled with the anticipation of having more men among them.

Each woman’s unique reason for being at San Salvatore is part of this classic novel. Each didn't fully understand her unhappiness. But, each becomes enchanted with the grounds of their vacation rental and begins to view her life situation a little differently. The story intrigued me; I thought about how much has changed for women over the last 100 years and how much hasn’t. We are still debating whether the men in their lives should define women.

Additionally, societal’s expectations and views of women have changed, but perhaps not as significantly as many would believe. Elizabeth von Arnim encourages us to examine the completeness and complexities of women’s lives even in these modern times. She also teases us to wonder whether the four women were truly rejuvenated and refreshed by their enchanted Aril or whether they just accepted their lives or “settled” for what life offered. show less

This novel, first published in 1922, is not one of the usual classics people laud as a must-read, but I found myself appreciating it from the first chapter. The writing is high quality, with many lovely passages. The characters have depth to them, and their interior lives are explored at length through the use of the omniscient point of view. And the plots itself allows for so much reflection on the reader's part.

As a modern woman, I felt the characters' plights more acutely, I think, than many readers of the time would have. Imagine, as a grown woman, being given only a one-hundred-pound annual allowance for everything you might want to buy yourself. Imagine being trapped in a marriage where you've grown apart from your husband to such show more an extent that he doesn't care about you disappearing for an entire month with only a note explaining that you've gone off to an unspecified location, but you can't even imagine getting a divorce. Imagine being a beautiful young member of the aristocracy who's constantly treated as nothing but a prize to be sought and discouraged from ever thinking. I would certainly want a vacation from the men in my life. I would want to get away from them and flex my independence for as long as possible!

I loved seeing four women band together in spite of every force that would rather have prevented it. I found myself eagerly reading as I hoped for each one to find personal growth and deepening friendships. I could have read an entire novel of four women starting as strangers and becoming friends through a series of events that bring them closer together and farther apart in a way that mimics the highs and lows of a traditional romance plotline.

Unfortunately for me, and I hope this doesn't count as a spoiler because of, you know, the genre, this book does eventually take a turn into actual traditional romance plotlines. I didn't mind it as much as I normally might have, given the aforementioned circumstances of divorces in the 1920's probably not providing the happiest of endings (if it was even possible for these characters given the laws in England at that time?). Still, if you, like me, would have preferred the women to find independence (or at least remain unmarried if they currently are), you'll probably find some degree of disappointment. If anything, I think this may be the biggest factor holding the book back from becoming that well-celebrated classic because the people who determine these things seem to me like they'd prefer a tragic ending with a deeply feminist message.

But the book certainly is feminist for its time, and, in my opinion, there's something to be said for daring to allow its female characters to be the engineers of their own happiness. And those who do like romance may find it entirely charming. All in all, I think this is an underrated classic, and I would recommend it to anyone looking for one with excellent female characters. The few that are around deserve to be celebrated. show less

I can see why this book sent many in 1922 rushing to vacation on the Italian coast. If I were a) richer, b) more inclined to travel, and c) not living in very uncertain travel times, I would be booking a trip myself. I am one of not many people who love winter as much as summer, and today have enjoyed looking out the windows at my snow-covered yard and neighborhood. But every night since starting this book I have gone to sleep dreaming of sunshine and sea air and an overabundance of flowers.

The four women who take this trip together - all initially unknown to one another - could really not be more different. As a person who would never vacation with strangers on purpose, I could not begin to imagine how this April would become the least show more bit enchanted. And yet it did, in very sweet ways though with plenty of bitterness to keep one's teeth from aching from the sugar. Oh, and humor, the kind of humor that is actually funny. Another author I have been shielded from all my life by all the pseudo-thrillers and cartoon-cover romances that fill up the bestseller lists in 2022. Loved it. show less