8 h 55 minAudiobook13 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 8 h 55 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if a month among Italian flowers could help four weary women ask what they really want?
On a wet February afternoon in a London women's club, shy Lotty Wilkins sees an advertisement for a castle on the Italian coast. She and Rose Arbuthnot, a woman absorbed in charity and church work, decide to rent it for April. To share the cost, they seek two more guests.
Lady Caroline Dester wants relief from admirers; Mrs Fisher wants comfort and order. Together at San Salvatore, these four strangers bring different habits, private sorrows and uncertain hopes. Elizabeth von Arnim's comic novel sets their uneasy company among sun, sea and gardens, asking whether lives shaped by duty and appearances can make room for happiness.
What you’ll discover
- A garden to linger in Wander with Lotty and Rose through flowers and sunshine, where simple pleasures begin to matter.
- Four sharply drawn women Meet guests whose clashing needs turn a shared holiday into a gently comic test.
- Marriage beneath the manners Look beyond polite routines as Lotty and Rose question the distance within their marriages.
- Warmth without losing wit Enjoy an amused narrator who notices pride and anxiety as keenly as joy.
- Permission to seek happiness Explore what happens when women weighed down by duty begin to consider their own wishes.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy warm, funny stories about friendship, second chances, and the pleasure of leaving home. It suits readers who like gardens and Italian light.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A newspaper ad stirs two unhappy women
- Guilt and money stand in their way
- Two strangers join the party
- A rainy journey ends in a dark climb
- Lotty wakes up in heaven
- Lady Caroline and Mrs. Fisher claim their ground
- Lotty invites her husband, and Rose aches
- Mellersh arrives in a towel
- Happiness spreads from person to person
- A comedy of voices, flowers, and heaven
Who’s who
- Mrs. Wilkins (Lotty)A shy, freckled Hampstead wife who spends her savings on a holiday and soon believes that happiness can be shared with everyone.
- Mrs. Arbuthnot (Rose)A grave churchgoer who devotes herself to the poor and longs, without admitting it, for the husband who has drifted away.
- Lady Caroline Dester (Scrap)A young beauty worn out by admiration, who wants only to be left alone to think and to reach a conclusion about her life.
- Mrs. FisherA stiff elderly widow who lives on memories of Carlyle and Tennyson and wants a quiet place to sit in the sun.
- Mellersh WilkinsLotty's handsome, careful solicitor husband, who is always on the lookout for useful clients and well-connected acquaintances.
- Thomas BriggsThe warm-hearted young owner of San Salvatore, who hopes to settle down and cannot hide what he feels.
- Frederick ArbuthnotRose's husband, who writes popular memoirs about the mistresses of kings and has drifted away from his devout wife.
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The Enchanted April
by Elizabeth von Arnim · 1922
Two unhappy Hampstead wives answer a newspaper ad and rent an Italian castle for April, with two strangers.
Medium level5–10 hours to readEspañol
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In short
What would you do if a newspaper advertisement offered sunshine and wisteria on the Italian coast, and you had ninety pounds saved for a rainy day? Mrs. Wilkins, a shy solicitor's wife from Hampstead, decides that the rainy day has come.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A newspaper ad stirs two unhappy women
The story opens in a London women's club on a cold February afternoon. Mrs. Wilkins picks up The Times and finds an advertisement for a small medieval Italian castle, to let for April, for those who appreciate wistaria and sunshine.
She throws the paper down, because she is poor. Over the years she has saved ninety pounds from her clothing allowance, the only money she owns. Then she notices Mrs. Arbuthnot, whom she knows by sight from church, staring at the same page with the sad face of a patient Madonna.
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- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 13 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1922
- Language
- Español
- Reading time
- 5 h 45 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Arnim, Elizabeth von. The Enchanted April. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-enchanted-april.
Arnim, E. von. (2026). The enchanted April. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-enchanted-april (Original work published 1922)
Arnim, Elizabeth von. The Enchanted April. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-enchanted-april.
@book{arnim2026enchanted,
author = {Arnim, Elizabeth von},
title = {The Enchanted April},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-enchanted-april},
note = {First published 1922}
}
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What is The Enchanted April about?
Four women who do not know one another rent a medieval castle in Italy for April. Two escape dull marriages, one flees admirers, and one wants quiet. The sun and the garden change how they treat each other and themselves.
Who is Lady Caroline Dester in The Enchanted April?
She is a young woman of very good family and great beauty, nicknamed Scrap. She comes to the castle to escape the attention she receives, and hopes to spend the month thinking and resting without being fussed over.
Where is San Salvatore in The Enchanted April?
It is a fictional medieval castle on the Italian Riviera, above a small harbor village called Castagneto, not far from the town of Mezzago. It has gardens, battlements, and views of the sea and the mountains.
The author
Elizabeth von Arnim
1866–1941 · British-Australian novelist
Elizabeth von Arnim was an Australian-born British novelist celebrated for her wry, sunlit comedies of manners — most famously The Enchanted April, the story of four women transformed by a month in an Italian castle.
More by Elizabeth von Arnim
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