The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim

A notice in The Times addressed to ‘Those Who Appreciate Wisteria and Sunshine’ advertises a ‘small medieval Italian castle to be let for the month of April’. Four very different women take up the offer: Mrs Wilkins and Mrs Arbuthnot, both fleeing unappreciative husbands; beautiful Lady Caroline, sick of being ‘grabbed’ by lovesick men; and the imperious, aging Mrs Fisher. On the shores of the Mediterranean, beauty, warmth and leisure weave their spell, and nothing will ever be the same again.

Elizabeth von Arnim wrote The Enchanted April whilst staying in a castle in northern Italy in 1921, surrounded by inspiration for its setting.

The book opens in London on a rainy February day, and Mrs Wilkins feels stuck and fed up. She bonds with Mrs Arbuthnot over the letting advert she finds for the castle in the newspaper and they book it almost immediately, to the chagrin of their husbands. To mitigate the cost of the trip, they identify the two other ladies to go with them.

Mrs Wilkins and Mrs Arbuthnot arrive late at night on 31 March and embark on a tricky ascent in the dark up to the castle. On waking in the morning, however, they find themselves in a paradise far away from dreary London: the flowers are out, the sea sparkles and the sun shines.

Throughout the month of April, tensions ebb and flow between the four ladies. Mrs Fisher is elderly and unwilling to move on from the intellectual society in which her family mixed when she was a child. Mrs Wilkins and Mrs Arbuthnot reflect on the problems in their respective marriages, and Lady Caroline just needs a break. The relationships between each of the four develop differently throughout the month and they all give each other perspective in different ways.

I found the resolution of the story a little too neat and tidy but I loved the setting. Spring in Italy is wonderful, with warmth in the air and wisteria out everywhere. This is a perfect book to read just as the weather is beginning to brighten up.