Book Review: "The Enchanted April" by Elizabeth von Arnim

This book was recommended to me by the wonderful world of the internet. I saw someone talking about its tone and I was definitely in. The book itself is gorgeous, atmospheric and funny and the characters are brilliant. Starting off by being set in Hampstead, our main character Mrs Lotty Wilkins is enamoured by an advertisement of a Medieval Castle in the newspaper. As her husband encourages her to 'save for a rainy day' she has become so thrifty with her clothes that she practically dresses in rags. But now, she's come to her 'rainy day' and she's wondering what to do next...

Lotty persuades another woman, named Rose to join her in the scheme, but the rent is too high for just the two of them. They decide to find two more women to share costs. Through further advertisements and acquaintances, they attract Lady Caroline Dester, a stunning socialite suffocated by endless attention and shallow London society, and Mrs. Fisher, an elderly widow who clings to the memory of Victorian cultural figures she once knew. The four women, strangers with little in common, commit to the trip, each secretly hoping for private renewal. Elizabeth von Arnim's writing style is great, everyone is intensely described and the book is littered with little flashbacks. What we get is a fully-formed portrait of basically every character. You get completely lost in their inner-lives and when you come out of the other end, it is almost cathartic.

Each woman carries with her emotional burdens: Lotty with her husband Mellersh; Rose with her moral disapproval of her husband’s career writing racy biographies; Lady Caroline with her exhaustion from being objectified; and Mrs. Fisher with her stubborn superiority and loneliness. This background heightens the contrast when they finally reach Italy. The author makes us realise that even though these four women come from different walks of life with different marriages, they are all searching for something more and must, with all their might, go out and find it rather than sit around and dream it might come to them.

The castle at San Salvatore overwhelms them. Set among wisteria, olive trees, and the Mediterranean’s shimmering blues, it feels like stepping into paradise. The descriptions of light, scent, and colour are lush, creating a dreamlike, almost enchanted atmosphere. These directly juxtapose the descriptions of rain, gloom and grey that we once encountered in London. Each woman reacts differently: Lotty feels instantly freed and rejuvenated, as though the place unlocks her true self, Rose is awed yet uneasy, fearing indulgence might be sinful, Lady Caroline longs for solitude but is enchanted by the beauty and Mrs. Fisher clings to her stiffness, determined not to be swept away. These different reactions means the reader gets to see how different and varied women really were at a time when their attempts to be seen were pretty much erased. It is like the author is bringing the inner-lives of these women to the absolute forefront, forcing the reader to meet and encounter them as three dimensional people with desires, fears and needs just like everyone else.

All of the women are transformed as the book goes along, including Mrs. Fisher who keeps invoking the 'genius' of dead Victorian men in order to grant herself the proper authority as she guards the 'proper' way to behave. The four women join forces in their experience of joy and decide that perhaps it is best to see if this special place can perhaps fix their relationships as well. Lotty Wilkins eventually invites her husband over to see if they can patch things up and ultimately, she finds out so much more than she ever thought she would.

All in all, this book definitely had some magical qualities. Elizabeth von Arnim's writing is sensory, atmospheric and has descriptions that are literally to die for. The characters and their little side stories, their faults and their internal horrors are all exposed as they struggle to shake off the things that made them 'good wives' back in London. This is a story about female freedom through the lives of four women who have been stifled by men and society in some way in one of England's most vulnerable times. It is about how to fix yourself and your relationships. It's gorgeous.