The Enchanted April, by Elizabeth von Arnim

I only became aware of Elizabeth von Arnim a little more than a year ago when I picked up a copy of her book Love at the Goodwill in Downtown Brooklyn without knowing anything about it. Later I realized I had been vaguely aware of her, without knowing her by name. I remembered the existence of the movie Enchanted April – I could picture the poster, though I never saw it. But the book was recommended to me – I would have been interested anyway after reading Love – and so when I found a copy at a used bookshop in Philadelphia earlier this year I bought it. And then I brought it home and shelved it. It was its appearance in "Read Like the Wind" on December 18 that brought it to the front of my mind, and so I determined I would read it next.

The Enchanted April takes place not long after the Great War. Four English women who are nearly strangers, together rent a small castle in Italy for the month of April. Each has her own reason for wanting to get away. In their new setting, each is transformed. This is the premise, but it's Elizabeth von Arnim's telling of it that makes this book. She has a sharp insight into people, and how they relate to one another and the way she describes these intrigues is funny and a little wicked. We see at once the surface interactions and the currents underneath. 

As someone who travels frequently and often prefers to be alone when I do so, I was presented with a possibly unflattering picture of myself when I started this book. Earlier this year – in April, in fact – I went on a trip with one woman I knew and two women I didn't. Did I, like the book's Lady Caroline conspicuously sneak off on my own for entire days? I don't claim her other qualities – startling beauty and wealth – but I recognized her fear of being attached to. I'd rather imagine myself (as would anyone I think) as like the book's Mrs. Wilkins, who on arriving in their castle is suffused with love and sympathy. For the first time, she finds the competence and independence to be truly herself. Her transformation is nearly instant, while the others' take time, but it is Mrs. Wilkins who really brings it all about. 

The Enchanted April was delightful and now I so want to go to the Ligurian coast some April (if nothing else to see the flowers so vividly described in this book!). It's a shame that possibility feels so remote today.