8 h 55 minAudiobook12 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 8 h 55 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 219 pagesHardcover · 6 × 9 in · 219 pagesAbout 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
For readers who love gentle comedy, gardens, travel and well-drawn women, or anyone who needs a cheerful story in a grey season.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A grey February in London
- Two strangers decide to run away
- Two more women join the plan
- The journey south to San Salvatore
- Sun, sea and the first small changes
- Four women under one roof
- How love and marriage are tested
- What the story is really about
- How the book is told
Who’s who
- Lotty WilkinsA shy, anxious Hampstead wife who sees the advertisement first and finds in Italy a joy she did not know she had.
- Rose ArbuthnotA serious, devout woman who gives much to charity and wonders whether her goodness has driven her husband away.
- Lady Caroline DesterA young beauty, called Scrap by friends, who is worn out by admirers and wants only to be left alone.
- Mrs FisherAn elderly widow of fixed Victorian habits who likes comfort and order and treasures her memories of famous writers.
- Mellersh WilkinsLotty's husband, a careful solicitor concerned with money, position and doing the proper thing.
- Frederick ArbuthnotRose's husband, a charming writer of light books who has drifted away from his wife.
- DomenicoThe Italian servant at San Salvatore who looks after the guests with patience despite the language gap.
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- Audiobook
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- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in, 219 pages: USD 9.95 when you start free, USD 15.95 on its own.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in, 219 pages: USD 16.95 when you start free, USD 22.95 on its own.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Read and hear The Enchanted April in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
The Enchanted April
by Elizabeth von Arnim · 1922
Four English women rent an Italian castle for April and begin to ask what they owe to their own happiness.
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In short
The Enchanted April is a comic novel by Elizabeth von Arnim, published in 1922. She wrote it after the First World War, when many people in Britain were tired, grieving and short of colour.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A grey February in London
The story opens on a cold, wet afternoon in February, in a London women's club. Mrs Lotty Wilkins is a shy, anxious young woman who lives in Hampstead with her husband Mellersh, a solicitor. She is always eager to please, and she has a habit of doing what others expect of her. Her days are full of small duties, thrift and worry about what people will think.
At the club she picks up a newspaper and reads a short advertisement. It offers a small medieval castle on the shore of the Mediterranean in Italy, furnished, to let for the month of April. The notice mentions wistaria and sunshine. Lotty is struck by it as if she had been called by name.
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What is The Enchanted April about?
It follows four English women who rent a medieval castle on the Italian coast for April. Away from London's grey routines, the sun and flowers loosen their defences and make them rethink their lives and marriages.
Who are the four women in The Enchanted April?
They are Lotty Wilkins, Rose Arbuthnot, Lady Caroline Dester and Mrs Fisher. Lotty and Rose plan the trip, and the other two join them to share the cost of the castle.
When was The Enchanted April written and is it a true story?
Elizabeth von Arnim published it in 1922. It is a work of fiction, though the Italian coast setting draws on the author's own knowledge and love of Italy and gardens.
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.
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