The Enchanted April

A little about the story

An advertisement offering a castle in Italy catches the attention of two women whose lives have become narrowed by duty and disappointment. Sharing the expense with two additional companions makes an apparently extravagant holiday possible. The four arrive with different expectations, different defenses against unhappiness, and very little reason to assume that living together will be easy. Their temporary home, however, offers a striking contrast to the habits they have brought from England.

Elizabeth von Arnim gives the month its movement through conversations, shifting alliances, misunderstandings, and the persistent beauty of the gardens and sea. The women are not transformed by a simple change of scenery; they must notice one another and reconsider their own assumptions. Wry comedy keeps the story alert to vanity and self-protection, while its warmth makes room for the possibility of renewal. The novel is interested in how people become trapped in descriptions of themselves, and how an interval outside familiar routines may allow affection, independence, and generosity to take less predictable forms.

Things You May Not Know About The Enchanted April

• A holiday behind the setting. Von Arnim drew inspiration from a stay on the Italian Riviera, giving the novel’s landscape a basis in lived experience.
• A real castle in Portofino. Castello Brown is associated with the writing and setting of the book, whose fictional holiday home is called San Salvatore.
• The month is the organizing idea. The four women rent the castle for April, making the temporary nature of their escape important to the story.
• An advertisement opens the possibility. A notice in The Times connects practical arrangements with the larger question of who is prepared to imagine a different life.
• A later screen journey. A film adaptation directed by Mike Newell appeared in 1991, returning the story’s emotional changes to a vividly realized Italian setting.