The Enchanted April: (Annotated Edition)
- ISBN-10
- ISBN-13
- 9798539192761
- Series
- The Enchanted April
- Pages
- 129
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2021-07-20
- Author
- Elizabeth von Elizabeth von Arnim
Description
This novel, first published in the early 1920's, tells the story of four British women who spend a month in the Italian countryside, experiencing a range of personal and emotional transformations. As it explores its central theme of awakening to a more fulfilled life, the narrative also explores themes relating to the inevitability of love, the presence and value of nature, and the relationship between past, present, and future. When the narrative begins, acquaintances Mrs. Wilkins and Mrs. Arbuthnot find themselves drawn together by an intriguing newspaper advertisement offering an Italian villa for rent the following April. The impulsive Mrs. Wilkins recognizes in the more restrained Mrs. Arbuthnot, a sense of unhappiness with life that she too feels and suggests that they rent the villa together in the hopes of reawakening their joy in life. Mrs. Arbuthnot eventually agrees, taking responsibility for making the arrangements with the villa's owner, Mr. Briggs, who upon meeting her, finds her very attractive. When the two women discover the cost of the rental, which they consider to be high, they decide to invite others to join them and reduce expenses even further. After receiving only two responses, they find they have no choice but to invite the aristocratic Lady Caroline Denston and the imperious Mrs. Fisher to the villa.
