She wanted to shut out everything that would remind her of beautiful things, that might set her off again longing, desiring…” Modern women and 1920s women each feel the need to pursue happiness for themselves and while many contemporary women plan frequent trips for themselves, two of the characters in The Enchanted April struggle with guilt for making that choice and spend energy justifying it. Arbuthnot is troubled by being “away from her compass points of God, Husband, Home and Duty,” the narrator notes: “For years she had been able to be happy only by forgetting happiness. Wilkins states, “Even if it were wrong, it would only be for a month….Anyhow, I’m sure it’s wrong to go on being good for too long, till one gets miserable.” As Mrs. Two of the women struggle with feelings of guilt for wanting some happiness for themselves. This sounds contemporary, and it was probably a radical plan in the 20s for women to plan a getaway or holiday (as these English women refer to it) alone and without the approval of their husbands. Four women in The Enchanted April take a girls’ trip to a castle in Italy. The four lonely strangers, all miserable in their own ways, converge on the castle and each one of their lives is changed because of the almost magical experience.Īmazon Rating (2015 edition): 4.1 Stars My Thoughts: While making plans, they come to the conclusion that since it’s a huge castle with eight beds, that it would be a good idea to find two more women so that four of them are sharing the cost to rent the Italian castle for one month. Each has a nest egg that she can use, and they decide to embark on this adventure without sharing their exact plans with their husbands. Wilkins, inspires the other and soon they are making plans to rent the castle. Both women are lonely and are in marriages that are less than satisfactory. Set in the 1920s, two women (strangers at this point) sitting near each other in a woman’s club strike up a conversation about an advertisement they see to rent a medieval castle in Italy. Genre/Categories: Women’s Fiction, Classics, Romance, Italy Summary: Girls decide to take a girls’ trip to Italy….does this sound modern?….it happened in 1920! The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim Collector’s edition (in box) As I read them, I couldn’t resist a comparison. The Enchanted April was originally published in the 1920s, and The Late Bloomers’ Club is contemporary. I read back-to-back light women’s fiction books (chick lit) in recent days, unusual and interesting for me since chick lit isn’t my preferred genre.
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