The Enchanted April
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4.1 • 39 Ratings
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- $3.99
Publisher Description
A recipe for happiness: four women, one medieval Italian castle, plenty of wisteria, and solitude as needed.
The women at the center of The Enchanted April are alike only in their dissatisfaction with their everyday lives. They find each other—and the castle of their dreams—through a classified ad in a London newspaper one rainy February afternoon. The ladies expect a pleasant holiday, but they don’t anticipate that the month they spend in Portofino will reintroduce them to their true natures and reacquaint them with joy. Now, if the same transformation can be worked on their husbands and lovers, the enchantment will be complete.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Four Englishwomen vacation together at an Italian castle in von Arnim's novel, a film version of which is now a popular art-house attraction.
Customer Reviews
The Enchanted April
Although the first half of the book was slow and cumbersome to get through, it really picked up as additional characters came on the scene. A few surprises and romance made the end of the story delightful and entertaining.
Lovely
What a lovely story, made me feel so good and be nicer to my husband!
This is an enjoyable novel to read.
The lure of Italy, particularly during a dismal, rainy day elsewhere, is hard to resist. For four British women, the attraction brings them to San Salvatore, a Tuscan villa, for an entire month of vacation.
The women are very different. Lotty Wilkins, nervous and talkative, is treated like a child by her husband and is starting to chafe from his oppression. Rose Arbuthnot, with a "face like a disappointed madonna," is pious, sweet, and desperately unhappy. Margaret Fisher, stern and demanding, lives in a past peppered with famous literary encounters. And Caroline Dester, striking beautiful and popular, is lonely and bored with her whirlwind social life.
The four rent San Salvatore together, and immediately begin to change. Lotty loses her nervous demeanor, and becomes a self confident, mature woman. Rose blossoms when she realizes that she does possess beauty, and wins back the love of her formerly indifferent husband. Margaret thaws out and begins to smile and relax, even conversing with the other tenants, living in the present instead of the dusty past. And Caroline re-opens her heart to love and friendship by recognizing the emptiness of her life before she left for Italy.
What is it that changes these women? Sun and rest in a beautiful place? Yes, partly, but mostly it is the friendship of three extraordinary people.
This is an enjoyable novel to read.