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    The Enchanted April: Classic Tales Edition
    The Enchanted April: Classic Tales Edition
    The Enchanted April: Classic Tales Edition
    Audiobook9 hours

    The Enchanted April: Classic Tales Edition

    Written by Elizabeth Von Arnim

    Narrated by B. J. Harrison

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    To Those who Appreciate Wisteria and Sunshine. Small medieval Italian Castle on the shores of the Mediterranean to be Let Furnished for the month of April. This small advertisement sparks something long dormant in the reluctant hearts of two downcast London women – the possibility of happiness.

    Meet Mrs. Wilkins and Mrs. Arbuthnot. Both are churchgoers, and very good, dutiful wives – they do everything that is expected of them. And they are both incredibly unhappy.

    Through this elegant novel, we see them work through their disparate struggles and rise from the ashes, with the help of wisteria and sunshine.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherB.J. Harrison
    Release dateJul 19, 2016
    ISBN9781950524051
    The Enchanted April: Classic Tales Edition
    Author

    Elizabeth Von Arnim

    Elizabeth von Arnim was born in Australia in 1866 and her family moved to England when she was young. Katherine Mansfield was her cousin and they exchanged letters and reviewed each other’s work. Von Arnim married twice and lived in Berlin, Poland, America, France and Switzerland, where she built a chalet to entertain her circle of literary friends, which included her lover, H. G. Wells. Von Arnim’s first novel, Elizabeth in Her German Garden, was semiautobiographical and a huge success on publication in 1898. The Enchanted April, published in 1922, is her most widely read novel and has been adapted numerous times for stage and screen. She died of influenza in 1941.

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    Reviews for The Enchanted April

    4/5

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    • 5/5
      A delightful story, perfect for spring listening! Don't be put off by the dreary opening, as soon as they reach Italy it becomes gorgeous and optimistic. The narrator is American, which originally gave me pause, but actually in the end it didn't matter that much except for slightly odd pronunciation of a couple of words.
    • 4/5
      It started a little slow, but turned into a lovely love story set in a spring-kissed Italian riviera. Appropriately, I read it in April and thus could readily picture and relate to the descriptions of flowers and trees in bloom.
    • 3/5
      I love the idea of this book, but the execution is sadly lacking. I was hoping for a novel combining the beauty of the Italian coastline with some sparkling female wit and a compelling plot, but The Enchanted April is basically about a group of women attempting to philosophise about their lives - treating the reader to some random and dull internal monologues in the process - who then forget about it all when some men turn up and make everything happy and smiley again. There are a few good bits in the book, mainly at the beginning, and at least the arrival of the men drives the plot forward a bit (although why *should* it be the men who propel the story along, feminists cry), but the rest of it does unfortunately show its age.
    • 4/5
      This was a cute romance written in 1922. It wasn't romance as most of us would know it; but it was more of a comedic romance; just a very sweet story. Three very disenchanted, bored, middle-aged housewives who could not be more unalike decide to rent an Italian villa for the summer and split the costs. They found a 4th roommate, a member of the aristocracy who just wants to be left alone, or does she? When the women arrive abroad, they find that the beauty of the Italian April truly enchants them—and that it begins to make them feel not only more connected with their inner self, but also more generous and loving to the world around them. A delightful read, if not slow in a few places.
    • 3/5
      This was a pleasant read, quite funny at times, a good 'tweener if you are doing some heavy books. The end wrapped up rather quickly after a slow and kind of draggy start in England. I think she could have drawn that out a bit more. The descriptions of the locale in Italy were lovely. Had a hard time at the end as the last three chapters wouldn't download on the app I was using, but thanks to another GR member, Leslie, I worked it out! Now if I could only get the .wma I borrowed from my library onto my ipod or discs. Not my week!
    • 4/5
      This was a cute romance written in 1922. It wasn't romance as most of us would know it; but it was more of a comedic romance; just a very sweet story. Three very disenchanted, bored, middle-aged housewives who could not be more unalike decide to rent an Italian villa for the summer and split the costs. They found a 4th roommate, a member of the aristocracy who just wants to be left alone, or does she? When the women arrive abroad, they find that the beauty of the Italian April truly enchants them—and that it begins to make them feel not only more connected with their inner self, but also more generous and loving to the world around them. A delightful read, if not slow in a few places.
    • 4/5
      Two women in London see an advertisement for a month-long rental of a castle in Italy. One of them, Mrs. Wilkins, a woman who never thought she would have the courage to even introduce herself to the other, is so taken by the thought of a month in Italy away from her husband that she approaches the other woman, Mrs. Arbuthnot, and proposes that they answer the ad. They find two other ladies, Lady Caroline and Mrs. Fisher, both strangers, to join them. The rest of the story is summed up by these lines from A Room with a View (the movie, because I can't find this in the book): "A young girl, transfigured by Italy! And why shouldn't she be transfigured? It happened to the Goths!"The four women find lost happiness during their vacation. Mrs. Wilkins attributes this to the beauty of the place; Von Arnim, though, shows us that their happiness comes from the way they begin to treat others. The novel is mainly fluff, and a quick read, but it nonetheless left me with a warm, happy feeling, much as the characters experience in Italy.
    • 5/5
      Audiobook read very well with humour and no unnecessary intensity. It’s a gentle book and needs a wry, sympathetic reading voice, which it got.
    • 5/5
      What a fun book! Witty, funny writing, and very well narrated. I do think a female voice would be more appropriate for this particular book, but still, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
    • 4/5
      Mrs Wilkins (Lotty) is spending a February afternoon at the Women’s Club when she happens to see an advertisement in the newspaper – a “castle” to let for the month of April in sunny Italy. This very proper British wife of an up-and-coming solicitor would never dream of doing anything so rash as going on holiday without her husband. And yet … who could blame her for desiring “wisteria and sunshine,” and she does have that little nest egg saved. Oh, but she couldn’t possibly … As she turns from her reverie she sees that Mrs Arbuthnot (Rose), a woman she knows only by sight and with whom she’s never spoken, is now looking at the same page of the paper. Could she possibly be looking at the same advertisement? Could they manage it if they did it together, perhaps with one or two other women as well?Thus begins a delightful adventure for four women who really do not know one another but agree to share the unique property. It is not quite what they were expecting, but somehow everything they dreamed of; friendship and love bloom along with wisteria in the Italian sunshine.This is a gentle read. The story moves with the languorous pace of a day spent relaxing in the sun, with nothing more to worry about than what time lunch will be served. Von Arnim really gives us just a snapshot of these four women during one month spent in Italy; the reader learns about them in dribs and drabs … much as you would discover a new acquaintance (and hoped-for friend).I found Lotty’s enthusiasm infectious; in fact, it is she who brings the others to a sense of peace and happiness. Rose and Lady Caroline Dester are perhaps the least happy with their lives in London, but each begins to flower as she relaxes and sheds her anxieties and worries. And Mrs Fisher has possibly found a true friend to comfort her in her old age. We get to know a little about their lives before they came to San Salvatore, but we are left to imagine what will happen once they leave.One thing that surprised me was Lotty’s seeming ability to “see” what will happen. In that respect there was a bit of “magic” to the tale, and the story reminded me of modern works by Sarah Addison Allen.
    • 4/5
      This is delightful. Mrs Wilkins, or a dreary February day in London, sees an advert for a castle in Italy for the month of April. And so she strikes up conversation with Mrs Arbuthnot and the two of them plan to escape their humdrum lives for a month. They decide to invite 2 additional ladies, in order to keep the costs down, so place an advert of their own for some ladies to share. Hence the unlikely assortment of women who find themselves arriving at San Salvatore for the month. Each has her reasons for wanting to escape, each of them has some space and quiet in order to re-assess their lives. It's quite brave to just run away. It can be very difficult to change your way of thinking, especially when it is o deeply ingrained. For the selfless do-gooder, it can be hard to be selfish at times. Each of them undergoes an emotional journey while barely moving from a comfortable chair. It remains surprisingly undated, while society has changed, the feelings and relationships between people have changed little. Hence it is still possible to feel for all of them, in their different ways, their hopes, fears, worries and aspirations. Lovely - and I'm looking at Italian holidays...
    • 5/5
      What a lovely, lovely book. Narrator was great and really nailed the funny parts.
    • 1/5
      Boring could not even finish it to the very end.





    • 5/5
      Lovely, delightful, hopeful, funny- everything you hope for in April.
    • 4/5
      This is a low key story set shortly after the First World War of four ladies who are strangers to each other on holiday for the month of April in a small castle in the Italian countryside. Mrs Wilkins and Mrs Arbuthnot both see a newspaper advert at the same time and decide to share the costs with two other ladies, the young Lady Caroline Dester and the elderly Mrs Fisher. Each of these four ladies is looking for peace and solitude but is unable to find in the beautiful Italian sunshine due to the presence of the others and their thoughts and feelings about their outside lives. Various men intrude themselves, or are invited, onto the scene. This is very much a novel on thoughts and feelings and an inner desire for peace and contentment and what the characters try to do to achieve that.
    • 4/5
      I plan on watching the film sometime, so I wanted to read the book first.It's 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.But 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.
    • 4/5
      I had two very different reactions to this book.First, while reading it, I loved it. Great writing; whimsical humour; lovely descriptions; strong character development. A day or so after reading it, I became disillusioned -- as if, like the characters, I had returned from my enchanted time in Italy to my everyday life. The broader, basic issues that plagued the two married couples were never addressed, and I can't see how things will be truly changed when they get home. I fear the women have not transformed, but merely decided to accept their roles in life as wives. Even Lady Caroline seems poised to give up her fierce independence! Marriage is not a solution to all of life's problems. But, then again, the book was written in 1922 so I should calm down a bit. Women had far fewer options then.
    • 4/5
      A discrete advertisement in The Times, addressed to "those who appreciate wisteria and sunshine," is the prelude to a revelatory month for four very different women. High above a bay on the Italian Riviera stands the medieval castle San Salvatore. Beckoned to this haven are Mrs. Wilkins, Mrs. Arbuthnot, Mrs. Fisher, and Lady Caroline Dester, each quietly craving a respite. Lulled by the gentle spirit of the Mediterranean, they gradually shed their public skins, discovering a harmony each of them has longed for but none has ever known. First published in 1922, this captivating novel is imbued with the descriptive power and lighthearted irreverence for which Elizabeth von Arnim is renowned

      Published in 1922, this book starts with Mrs Wilkins seeing an advert for a castle to rent in Italy posted on the front of the times. Married to a solicitor, with a small nestegg of £90 and looking at the rain outside she wonders if she could ever spend money in this way
      After reading the advert in her local club, she spots Mrs Arbuthnot, who goes to the same church as Wilkins but the two women have never talked. Both women are married and both have different reasons to disappear from their husbands – Wilkins because she fears she has become a non-entity and that her husband doesnt even notice she exists. Mrs Arbuthnot because she realises that she and her husband have grown apart – him to concentrate on writing his books, her to work on the things that fill her time as he keeps himself away from the marital home

      They agree to take the castle, and search for two other women to share the expenses with.

      Lady Caroline, young, beautiful, wanting to be left alone but realises that ultimately whilst very busy her life is essentially empty

      If no one an San salvia tore had ever heard of her, if for a whole month she could shed herself, get right away from everything connected with herself, be allowed to forget the clinging and the clogging and al the noise, why, perhaps, she might make something of herself after all. She might think; really clear up her mind; really come to some conclusion

      Mrs Fisher, the oldest, stuck in the past where the people of the day can never match the famous people who she knew when a child as they were always more intelligent, interesting, better mannered or more dominant. In turn she has turned into a bitter old woman who thinks everyone goes against her on purpose

      The four women arrive at the castle at the beginning of April and the place, surrounded by all the lovely flowers and flora, soon begin to shed their previous selves, some quicker than others. Very quickly Mrs Wilkins (Lottie) decides to invite her husband along. He does turn up, and is stunned at the change he has found in his wife. Because of his job as a solicitor, who needs more women clients, he is solicitous towards all the other women in the house too.

      Mrs Arbuthnot (Rose) is more reticent to invite her husband, but finally she does. However, he arrives at the castle, not looking for his wife, but looking for Lady Caroline, with whom he has become infatuated with whilst in London. However, in seeing his wife changed so much for the better, he realises his mistake and returns to the marital house.

      Mrs Arbuthnot realises: Why had she not been attractive sooner? Why the sudden flowering?

      He little realises the competition he had from Mr Briggs, the owner of the castle, who has been briefly infatuated with Rose and come to pay a visit. Unfortunately, Rose is almost immediately eclipsed with the arrival of Caroline into the room, which distracts Briggs. Briggs in the mean time has melted the icy heart of Mrs Fisher, who realises she was stuck in the past with the dead and needed live young people around her to bring her out of herself

      So ultimately, everyone gets to be where they should be, helped by good weather, good food, a little absence from each other and the benefit of a little solitude. Everyone is so middle classed British, stuck in that weird bit between the wars where people are still feeling the impact of the Great War, but haven’t really lost the Victorian Class system yet
    • 2/5
      In this story, set in 1922, Mrs. Lottie Wilkins and Mrs. Rose Arbuthnot become disenchanted with their husbands. Acting as feminists for their time, they plan to spend the month of April away from men at a castle named San Salvatore on the Italian Riviera. They advertise and then invite Lady Caroline “Scrap” Dester and Mrs. Fisher to share expenses. They aren’t there long when the beauty of San Salvatore so overcomes Lottie Wilkins that she decides to invite her husband to join them.Mellersh Wilkins, Lottie’s husband, arrives and immediately sees that meeting the people who are sharing the castle with his wife can be good for his business as an attorney. He is thrilled about this enterprising opportunity, and Lottie perceives that Mellersh appreciates her more than he had been, and her marriage becomes more fulfilling. Lottie, described as blessedly impetuous, tries to convince Mrs. Arbuthnot to invite her husband. However, Mrs. Fisher and Lady Caroline, who are not using the getaway to escape husbands, are less than enthralled with the anticipation of having more men among them.Each woman’s unique reason for being at San Salvatore is part of this classic novel. Each didn't fully understand her unhappiness. But, each becomes enchanted with the grounds of their vacation rental and begins to view her life situation a little differently. The story intrigued me; I thought about how much has changed for women over the last 100 years and how much hasn’t. We are still debating whether the men in their lives should define women.Additionally, societal’s expectations and views of women have changed, but perhaps not as significantly as many would believe. Elizabeth von Arnim encourages us to examine the completeness and complexities of women’s lives even in these modern times. She also teases us to wonder whether the four women were truly rejuvenated and refreshed by their enchanted Aril or whether they just accepted their lives or “settled” for what life offered.
    • 5/5
      I liked this book way more than I should have. Arnim’s ability to write a single moment right into the ground is admirable in a contrary sort of way – I mean, entire pages dedicated to describing one brief span of time, and it’s very stream-of-consciousness at times as well. And Lotty, who starts off realistic if a bit pathetic, opens her eyes her first morning in Italy and turns into a character Disney himself would envy. The only thing missing was somebody singing Zip-a-dee-doo-dah. And the ending is the shallowest, basest, most unrealistic Happily Ever After I’ve ever read. How is Frederick going to explain that unopened letter when he and Rose go home?But in spite of all of this, the book was as enchanting as its title. Were I but rich and idle, instead of just temporarily idle, I’d have jumped a plane for Italy before I got so much as 100 pages in. Arnim wrote such a backdrop for these women that it was hard not to smell the wisteria as it dropped its accumulated rain drops on your head. Even the castle, which Arnim spent little time describing overall, felt lived in. And in spite of all the faffing stream-of-consciousness and Lotty’s Disney-esque departure from reality-land, I found myself liking, or at least sympathising with, all four women. The men … not so much. Even though they were supposed to have been ‘saved by love’ (ugh!), I still found Wilkins a condescending, pompous ass, Frederick pathetic, and Briggs a massive disappointment. Somebody should have slapped that boy upside his head.Arnim was a gifted writer, creating characters with a lot of character, so to speak, but she really shines – is absolutely brilliant – when it comes to writing about gardens, so I suspect that when I remember The Enchanted April it will be the gardens of San Salvatore that come through best and most vividly.NB: I read the Folio Society Edition from 2002, and it included the most charming colour illustrations; they perfectly complemented the text.
    • 1/5
      DNF’ed at page 120. It’s tedious in comparison to the two historical chunksters I’m reading at the same time.
    • 5/5
      Not often these days I bash out a five star award but this one was a total surprise. I only borrowed the book from the library because I came across it on Amazon as a film. On the face of it - not my kind of novel. But the prose flows - you cannot fault its light touch and it is as fresh as when it was written. It is a kind of Ur-Shirley Valentine and men come out of it very badly. Von Arnim's attitude seems to question men's utility. She seems to admire people who can stand on their own two feet and not be needy. And yet she deals with all the characters (except perhaps Mr Briggs) with such care and attention and love. And love is really what the book is all about and its transformative power. But it is not mushy. One part reminded me of Larkin's "Broadcast" where Mrs Fisher is seen to need to be wanted or cared for by one person out of all the people in the world. Bought Liz a copy.
    • 4/5
      On a dismally dreary late-winter day in London, two young women spot the same advertisement in a local newspaper: San Salvatore, a castle on a hill above the Ligurian sea in Italy, is available to rent for the entire month of April. The pair, Lotty Wilkins and Rose Arbuthnot, hardly know each other but nevertheless scheme to escape their flagging marriages and disappointing circumstances by taking possession of San Salvatore for thirty days. They can only make it work financially by including two other tenants—the glamorous Lady Caroline Dester and the embittered dowager Mrs. Fisher—both of whom have their own very different reasons for escaping. Will the unlikely quartet learn to exist together well enough to find the idyllic holiday they are all seeking? Will the intoxicating beauty of the castle and its surroundings restore the love they all find missing in their lives back home? Learning the answers to those questions is just one of the pleasures associated with reading The Enchanted April.Written as it was about a century ago, it would be easy to regard this novel as merely a light-hearted, romantic look at a bygone time and place. However, that would be far too dismissive for what turned out to be a very satisfying reading experience. Indeed, author Elizabeth von Anrim has crafted here an ebullient and utterly charming tale, which, apparently, is something of an outlier in her catalog of work. She is also deeply insightful with respect to the multi-layered personalities and relationships developed throughout the story, a remarkable achievement given its brief length. The only two flaws I found in the book were the sometimes bloated and overly formal sentences that von Arnim crafted and the implausible (and hardly modern) resolution to Lady Caroline’s storyline. (In fact, the novel does wrap up rather abruptly, which left every character’s storyline feeling a little unresolved.) Still, The Enchanted April is a delightful paean to the transformative power of love as well as a book whose journey outshines its destination.
    • 4/5
      Four women respond to a newspaper advertisement and together rent a house in Italy for the month of April. This is delightfully funny and observant, with idyllic descriptions of spring in Italy. I liked the friendships which develop between four very different women, and the way they are challenged -- or perhaps it’s more accurate to say, inspired -- to reconsider their opinions about others.The ending is very tidy and conventional, but that is not so surprising. (I have the impression that there were not very many options for happy endings that a 1920s novelist could easily give to unhappily married women -- if those character made choices that were too unconventional they would likely face disapproval from their community and the author might face disapproval from hers, too.)Reading nothing but sunshine and fairytale endings would become unsatisfying, no matter how wonderful the prose, but, sometimes, sunshine and fairytale endings are just want one wants.Worse than jokes in the morning did she hate the idea of husbands. And everybody was always trying to press them on her -- all her relations, all her friends, all the evening papers. After all, she could only marry one, anyhow; but you would think from the way everybody talked, and especially those persons who wanted to be husbands, that she could marry at least a dozen.
    • 4/5
      The story of four women who answer an advertisement to spend a month at a castle in Italy. The atmosphere and the influence of one of the women (Mrs Wilkins) on the others bring about changes in each of them.While this was a little slow in places, overall I found it amusing and enjoyable. The four women are well characterized and the initial suspicion felt by Caroline and Mrs Fisher was very well done. The scene where Rose's husband arrives and is introduced to Caroline was fabulous.
    • 4/5
      Charming with gentle humor.
    • 4/5
      If you follow my reviews, you'll know I almost never read fiction, but an article in the November 7, 2016 issue of TIME magazine entitled "Read a novel: it's just what the doctor ordered" caught my eye and this was the only title my local library had from the recommended list--in a new Vintage edition with an excellent introduction by Brenda Bowen.

      The Enchanted April was written in 1922 by an author who was very popular at the time...and as such it would have been easy to assume that Enchanted April would be a novel that could be picked up, read, and discarded as 'light reading'. The TIME listing of a 100-year old work that appeared to fall into the 'light romance' category called, however, for a more generous approach. This proved absolutely correct because what I discovered was the sort of story P. G. Wodehouse would have written had he been female--funny, full of amusing concocted situations and misunderstandings set in those delightful 1920s years of propriety and 'place', that when considered is as relevant today as it was then. Human nature hasn't changed much in 100 years, and the four main female protagonists who decide to rent an Italian villa on the sea for the month of April--each to escape their own individual unhappy states--is the perfect platform for that discovery. I won't divulge the story but three men also enter into the story as well as Jeeves-like staff (had he been Italian) and enchanting descriptions of springtime flowers. Von Arnim certainly knew her gardens (and Italy in the spring).

      I also loved the language--its wit and sophistication, its perfect choice of words that all seem quite normal until at sentence-end you find yourself smiling or even laughing out loud. The Enchanted April was later staged, and I'm sure if it were staged again today, would have a second run on life as did Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap. As for TIME's proposal that select novels can "improve one's mental health" or "your ability to empathise with your fellow man," you must judge for yourself.
    • 5/5
      This is a perfectly enchanting book about a month spent in an enchanting place. Lottie Wilkins and Rose Arbuthnot are two rather depressed suburban housewives living in Hampstead. outside of London. Lottie is oppressed by her penny pinching husband, and Rose is totally ignored by her bon vivant writer spouse. One day, while in London doing their shopping, they meet at their women's club and happen to see an ad in The Times for a villa in Tuscany for rent in the month of April. Suddenly, an image of something different appears in both their minds and they decide they must rent it it and get away. To ease the costs they recruit two other women: Mrs. Fisher, a Victorian widow who lives in the ghostly past with her photographs and Lady Caroline Dester, who is trying to get away from all the men pursuing her in London.How this odd assortment of characters lives together and become transformed by the magic of the villa and of April in Italy makes for the most delightful reading. If this book doesn't make you smile, you have no joy in your soul.
    • 5/5
      Loved this book! I love the author's style of writing,poetic and lilting.The characters made me giggle and laugh and at time scrunch up in frustration.Well written,wonderful story. The descriptions of scenery just abt transport you there!I will have to see if I can get the movie!
      Highly suggested.Loved it!
    • 3/5
      I so wanted this short novel to have the charm of the movie! I know. Silly of me, but this 1920's story of four women from London who rent a beautiful Italian villa based on an advertisement in the newspaper hoping to escape their various lives, left me wanting. The women are not particularly likable and the lengthy internal monologues just wore me down. And then the men arrive! Why? Oh well. Guess I'll just have to watch the movie again.