Review: The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
Four very different women. An Italian villa. A holiday of awakenings.
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Vintage Fiction | Literary Fiction | Women’s Fiction
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
Description
Four very different women respond to an advertisement in the Times appealing to “those who appreciate wisteria and sunshine” to rent a small medieval castle in Italy for a month. The spring climate and the castle eventually start to have an effect on the women as their perceptions shift and they wake up to the love in their lives.
My Thoughts
This book is over a century old now, and yes, I like reading older novels sometimes for the language: when it’s different and clever and I can’t predict how the author will string all the phrases together. I was hoping for a read with characters engaging enough to hold my attention even if the story wouldn’t be in a rush to make “stuff” happen. I certainly got that here, being fully interested in the characters despite my not liking some of them some of the time.
Shimmering Fiction with Such Humor
Honestly, I didn’t know the novel would be so delightfully funny! The imagery is lovely, as I expected, and the characters evaluate their lives while they’re on their holiday, as I also expected. I expected the human transformations as well, though I couldn’t tell ahead of time what each transformation would be.
(Possible that not all of those transformations would really last too far past April, but hey. I’m fine leaving practicality out of it for certain shimmering fiction.)
But the humor! How refreshing. Wonderful wit pointing out the unfortunate, the ridiculous, the curious, and the dear.
A tale a century old, yet holding enchantment.
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