The Enchanted April

"At the beginning of this book, two women in the 1920s are in a club in Hampstead [London] on a rainy day. They see a newspaper advert: “To those who appreciate wisteria and sunshine. Small medieval Italian castle to be let for the month of April.” Both go off into a reverie, and talk themselves into squandering their nest eggs on a month in this castle. They find two other people to join them – a deeply beautiful heiress called Lady Caroline, and a really annoying older woman. So off they go to this beautiful castle in Italy, leaving their husbands behind. They all go through different transformations as the castle works its magic on their souls. And they write to their husbands, saying they must come too. One of the husbands is a writer of terrible romantic fiction, and actually comes out there on a totally different mission – to seduce Lady Caroline. But he falls back in love with his wife instead. Yes. If it was written now these women would all be in their late forties, but because it was written in 1922 they’re in their thirties – terribly middle-aged and pastured. They rediscover and rekindle their love for their husbands. That’s exactly the kind of person I would recommend this book to. It gives you renewed hope and faith in a longterm relationship. I would say: Read this book to remember the joy of falling in love with your partner, because that is what happens to these people. Obviously it’s a fairy tale situation and not very realistic – most of us can’t afford to go to a castle in Italy for a month. But the realism is there underneath, because what the women feel for their absent husbands and vice versa is exactly what people feel now. That we don’t understand or love each other any more. That we don’t seem to have anything in common, or spend any time together. All these things are reawakened in this novel by the beauty of the surroundings, and they see the positives in each other again. It’s a very happy, healing, uplifting tale. Precisely."

"Reading novels about happiness or seeing movies about happiness doesn’t necessarily make you feel happy. Sometimes you want to read a book that makes you feel happy and The Enchanted April is just one of the most charming books. It’s about four women who are each unhappy in their own ways and decide to take a break from grey England by renting a house in Italy, and their lives are completely transformed. It sounds very syrupy but because von Arnim is such an astute writer it has a biting edge – it’s not all fairy dust. There’s so much in here. Each of the women is unhappy in her own way and each one is dealing with unhappiness in her own way. It shows you different mistakes people can make and how we can fix them. I think it’s funny that some people connect happiness with shallowness. I just don’t see that. In Buddhism they talk about skillful emotions. Happiness is a skillful emotion for most people. Some are born with happy genes, but for most people it takes work to be happy. To think that you shouldn’t want to be happy because it’s too superficial or because there’s too much suffering in the world? Happiness equips you to worry more about the world around you. People who are happy can turn outward. Studies show that happiness makes people more altruistic. Studies show that novelty and challenge make people happier. So going to new places and doing new things does tend to make people happier. And it’s definitely true that being in a beautiful place makes people happier. That was established by the department of studies that didn’t need to be funded."