the enchanted april
i hope the enchanted april enchanted your own april. here’s our guest host sarajane’s take on the book.
Filed under book trail, classic, fiction |I was totally enchanted by Enchanted April. I found myself completely taken in by the delicious descriptions on every page of this delightful novel. It was almost magic how quickly I felt totally transplanted into this warm, fragrant world of San Salvatore. It was not hard to picture myself among the ladies as they discovered the beauty of the Castle and themselves. Von Arnim’s writing is witty and charming both in her characters and descriptions. I am amazed that she wrote the book in a little over five months. I feel like each of the four main characters where given adequate attention and development as they bloom into lovely women.
The wall flower Mrs. Wilkins blossoms into Lotty who is full of life, love and friendship. Mrs. Arbuthnot the reserved, ashamed, and repressed charity worker blooms into Rose the passionate bosom filled lover. Then there is Lady Caroline the pent up girl who can’t catch her breath discovers that she has all along been Srcap “a spoilt, a sour, a suspicious and selfish spinster.” Hiding underneath the name of Droitwiche and underneath the beautiful skin and voice she is after all just a lonely girl who is afraid that someone will discover that she too is vulnerable. We can’t forget Mrs. Fisher who begins to burgeon and feels that at any moment she “might crop out all green,” and actually make new friends. Each one of these charters speaks to me in their old and new states.
Lotty, after living with Mr. Wilkins for so many years actually began to feel that she was of no value. After realizing that other people placed value in his wife Mr. Wilkins began also to treat her with affection. “The more he treated her as though she were really very nice, the more Lotty expanded and became really very nice, and the more he affected in his turn, became really very nice himself.” This principle seems to really exist in relationships. People act the way they are treated. Do we not become the kind of people that others think us to be? It is a circle that continues for good or bad. As we see with Rose, the more Mr. Briggs thought Rose charming the more charming she became.
The book illustrates that the true test in a relationship is to be able to throw justice out the window as Lotty realizes when she says,“At home I wouldn’t love Mellersh unless he loved me back, exactly as much, absolute fairness. And as he didn’t, neither did I…” This book speaks out about relationships and having trust in others. Can there be love without trust? How did these women bloom into such loving people? Was it the influence of the atmosphere at the castle or was it the influence they had on one another? What are your thoughts? Feelings? Insights? Likes and dislikes about the novel?
This novel is rich with beautiful setting and blooming characters. I enjoyed being transported, after all “everybody needs a holiday.”
4 Responses to “the enchanted april”
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This book made me wish I could find my own private castle on a cliff in Italy for the month of April. (And have a happy little Italian cook get fresh food from all her relatives to feed me) Sigh.
I agree with Sarajane that there are a lot of good points on relationships in the book. It’s so hard to be selfless (I’m totally in awe of mothers and still can’t quite figure out how i’m going to do that) in a relationship, but when you actually are–or at least try to be–the rewards really are quite remarkable.
I think it’s interesting that when Rose is “selfless” at home in England with her charity cases, she feels that to be really good, she actually has to deny herself happiness. She certainly is giving of her self and denying her own wants/needs, but there seems to be something lacking. Is it that she wants to be unhappy–that she takes pleasure in misery? Or is there something else missing in that equation of selflessness=good things happen to you. What do you all think?
I think when Rose was in London spending all her time and energy on the poor she’s not really being selfless at all but actually is being selfish. She feels like her life is empty and thinks that by doing ‘good’ she can find some kind of fulfillment. Not that I don’t agree with the idea of finding joy in helping others but it seems that Rose was in it for her own heart, she was thinking of herself and not the hearts of those around her whom she was ‘helping.’ Its all about your attitude and I think she was looking inside and not out.
This book took me a little bit to get into it. Maybe a chapter or two. But after that, I was hooked. I fell in love with Mrs. Wilkins, as did everyone else by the end of the book. She was odd and quirky, but was able to overcome herself. I thought it was interesting how the women all initially wanted to curb Mrs. Wilkins and ended up loving her and really becoming who they truly were meant to be. This book made me want to travel to Italy. It made me think of the beauty around me that I don’t take time every day to see and appreciate. It made me want to have my ears pinched affectionately (pg 174) and made me pinch Brad’s just to prove to him of my love! I wonder if they’ve made a movie of this book, I thought it was great!.
strange, i’m going to have to go against everyone here. but i found the experience of reading the enchanted april (in its totality, mind you) somewhat irksome. i loved the language, the place, the people…but i so clearly and thoroughly identified with each woman–that is, i felt unappreciated like lotty, suffocated like lady caroline, unfulfilled like rose, and lonely and tired like mrs. fisher–that as i tried to escape myself, instead i had to meet myself on every page.
[yes, you’re right. i need a vacation.]
and that’s the thing, isn’t it? these ladies simply needed a vacation. i don’t think that it was necessarily the combination of people so much as the change of location that brought about this string of epiphanies.
there are a few places on earth that are san salvatore for me–when i stand in them for however small a moment, i am reminded of all the parts of myself. i feel whole. i feel capable. i feel like i can face it (whatever it happens to be at the moment).
why is that? why does standing out underneath a southern utah sky, somewhere outside capitol reef, in the middle of july, feeling the heat of the sand and the rocks make me feel like a human being again?
what is the function of an “escape place”? where is yours?
[and, kt, i think that rose didn’t feel fulfilled simply because she wasn’t herself. it’s like eternal PMS with a touch of immaturity. no matter what rose did she would have hated it and herself and everyone around her. it’s a mindset, don’t you think?]