The very genuine and open Lottie Wilkins, often muddled and awkward in her speech, has been married only a few years, but she and her husband are rubbing each other the wrong way as the novel progresses, her intuition into her new friends' feelings and needs plays a major role.
They also reluctantly take on the waspish, elderly Mrs Fisher and the stunning but aloof Lady Caroline Dester to defray expenses. They find some common ground in that both are struggling to make the best of unhappy marriages. Mrs Arbuthnot and Mrs Wilkins, who belong to the same ladies' club but have never spoken, become acquainted after reading a newspaper advertisement for a small medieval castle on the Mediterranean to be let furnished for the month of April. The novel follows four dissimilar women in 1920s England who leave their rainy, grey environments to go on holiday in Italy. Critic Terence de Vere White credited The Enchanted April with making the Italian resort of Portofino fashionable. Von Arnim wrote, and set, the book in the 15th-century Castello Brown. The work was inspired by a month-long holiday to the Italian Riviera, probably the most widely read (as an English and American best seller in 1923 1]) and perhaps the lightest and most ebullient of her novels. The Enchanted April is a 1922 novel by British writer Elizabeth von Arnim. Everything in their lives changes and nothing changes. Who can stay unhappy with all the glorious sunshine, blue sea, and fragrant gardens? Italy’s enchantment works its magic. Eventually four unhappy women go to the house in bella Italy. Although they do not know one another well, Lottie approaches Rose and the two dream of Italy. As she prepares to leave, Lottie sees Rose Arbuthnot reading the same ad. It starts her dreaming, she thinks if only she could have this little time away, one month, to be on her own and free then she could endure trying to be a better wife, to do things just right. She sees an ad on a house in Italy for the month of April. Lottie stopped at her women’s club to read the paper on her shopping rounds. But Lottie doesn’t fit well into such a strict and narrow life she cannot seem to do things right. He is all stiff upper lip British wanting things done just so and hoping his wife will be an asset to his business. Lottie Wilkens is a young wife married to a lawyer.
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim is one of my favorite books.
0 kommentar(er)
