Constant Reader Classics Corner

[Sherry]

Let's start discussing this book July 1, 2008. The Enchanted April

[Happyreader]

For such a delightful writer, little biographical information or scholarly research is available on the Australian-born English writer Elizabeth von Arnim, born Mary Annette Beauchamp on August 31, 1866.

There are only two full-length biographies available: the 1958 Elizabeth of the German Garden: A Biography by Leslie de Champ (actually Elizabeth's daughter Liebet)and the 1986 Elizabeth The Author of Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Karen Usborne.

Ms. Usborne was inspired to research and write the biography since she was so entranced by The Enchanted April that she wanted to know more about the author. I was able to track down a copy of this book and unfortunately it makes for dull reading. A shame since it's about a fascinating life.

Rightfully, Elizabeth von Arnim should be at least as well known as Nancy Mitford or Izak Dinesen. She had stormy marriages (first to the German Count, Henning August von Arnim-Schlagenthin and then to the brother of Bertrand Russell), affairs (including with H.G. Wells), famous relatives (Katherine Mansfield was her cousin), and famous friends (E.M. Forster and Somerset Maugham).

According to the Gale Literary Database, The Enchanted April was inspired by a summer 1921 vacation on the Italian Riviera. The book initially garnered mixed reviews, including one from Rebecca West, who wrote in The New Statesman (2 December 1922) that Arnim had "lapsed back into the unplumbed seas of artificial femininity," Regardless, the book was an immediate and enduring popular success. It was a Book-of-the-Month Club choice in the United States and was adapted as a stage play in 1925 and as a motion picture in 1935 and again in 1992.

One interesting piece of trivia is that Mr. Skeffington, a great Bette Davis melodrama from 1940 is based on Von Arnim's last novel. Von Arnim died of cancer in 1941 in NYC.

The Gale Literary Database described Von Arnim's novels as novels of manners, focusing on power relations, often between fathers and grown daughters or between husbands and wives. Issues of class consciousness and of morality play an increasingly significant role in her later works.

What is your first impression of the novel? How did it speak to you and what were the key messages or impressions that you garnered from the novel?

[Gail]

I see the novel as a delightful read. Seemingly a really romantic tale fit only for the ladies, the book contains quite a bit of social commentary hidden among the flowers and the subtle, endearing comedy. At first I thought it was impossibly lightweight, but it turned into a most wonderful read that left me feeling both happy and amused.

I particualarly enjoyed the byplay between the women and their spouses.

[Ricki]

My opinions on the novel were similar to Gail's - I can see why Rebecca West made her comments on it while at the same time I thoroughly enjoyed the read. I liked your description of her as a 'delightful writer', too, Happyreader - I thought that was an apt description.

My copy has a forward which discusses her relationship to Mansfield - evidently she (van Arnim) was very interested in flowers and would discuss them with her cousin - this surprised me when I read of some of her desceiptions of the flowers and garden in the book because the progression of the blooming season didn't match that found naturally - that must sound petty but it did rather take me aback.

I liked the idea that the setting had a healing effect - in this case causing a blossoming of contentment among the characters which then fed into further contentment. I would imagine we all know places that affect us in that way.

Again, novels of manners make sense - it was a book about a time, a social group or groups and interactions. I'm glad you suggested it.

[Gail]

Oh, I must have been *really* sleepy this a.m.: thanks, Happyreader, for the bio. information. I'm always interested in backstories. This was a great idea on your part.

[Yulia]

What a romance life von Arnim had! Ricki, that is curious about the blooms being out of order. I'd expect that to be something that should be checked up on.

(Spoiler?)

Is it too early to ask, if the home had such an effect of them, how long it would last after they left? Would the friendships with Lady Caroline continue? (I wish there were a sequel to see how Lotty would fit into her current life.) Would Lotty see Mrs. Fisher again? I had to wonder after Mr. Wilkins and Mrs. Fisher gave Lotty an annoyed look at the end when Lotty said she saw love in the air. I thought, well, things are going back to normal already. I wish i had a peek into their future.

Also, Mr. Briggs seemed completely undeserving of Scrapp, I felt, which was rather disappointing. After all her longing to get away from a lapdog, that's just what she got. Are we meant to think she'd been running away from what was good for her all along? I don't know if I bought into that idea.

[Ruth]

Charming book. I was delighted with it until about 3/4 of the way through, when all the sweetness started to give me diabetes. Still and all, I enjoyed it. I was reminded of James M. Barry's Dear Brutus in which everyone enters an enchanted wood where they're given the chance to live their lives over again.

[Ricki]

Lottie reminded me of one of those sweet young floaty things who go through life being all happy and light but who couldn't cope with practicalities to save their life. Not that she necessarily was but it was just the connection I made.

[Wilhelmina]

I never think of myself as a romantic, but I totally bought the transforming power of love, as shown in this book. I didn't see Lottie as flaky; I saw her as a person who was magically opened up to a new level of perception of her fellow human beings. Clearly this book is more magical than realistic, but that's OK with me. As a friend of mine always quotes, "Buy the premise; buy the bit", and I could easily buy the magical premise.

I wasn't worried about the ending comments by Mr. Wilkins and Mrs. Fisher because, as Lottie frequently pointed out, the transformation is slower for some than for others. I didn't care about whether Mr. Briggs deserved Scrapp or not, because I think that the whole point of the book was that love is not based on merit. The heart is just thrown open to love - as Lottie says, any love is good. And that loving with an open heart brings out the capacity for love in others.

I also didn't fear for our characters once they returned home, because I don't think that the author intended for us to see the transformations as temporary. To me, the problems that they brought with them to the villa were problems of communication, perception, and closed-heartedness (to invent a word!) I don't see those hearts returning to their previous state. And after all, this was a magical, enchanted experience!

[Happyreader]

In the spirit of the book, I'm in perfect accord with the comments above.

I agree that the book has a strong fantasy element and can even see why Von Arnim, who had difficult and complicated relations, would find solace and escape in such a fantasy where conflict was so easily resolved. Like Gail says, what raises it above pure fantasy is that Von Arnim makes so many astute social observations. She cleverly covers class, gender, and power conflicts with such a light touch.

Plus, the novel touches on the magic that happens when we go on vacation and feel free for a time to escape from our hometown selves. Part of the allure of the trip for Lady Caroline and Mrs. Fisher is that they didn't know the people they would be vacationing with. Their soul desire was to escape their London selves. The magic that happened frequently happens when you travel, if you're travelling to the right place and encounter the right people. While I think we may lose some of that magic when we get back home, some of the changes are permanent, if ever so subtly.

Yulia, I shared your discomfort with the romance with Mr. Briggs at the end. That's the one thing that was different in the movie so spoiler alert for the movie. Mr. Briggs first discovers that Rose is married so he doesn't abandon her when he sees Lady Caroline -- and it turns out his vision is poor so he falls in love with her, despite not being able to see her. Lady Caroline feels love because the movie version Mr. Briggs loves her beyond her looks. I liked that version better since I felt that Lady Caroline deserved love beyond her surface charms.

At the same time, I read the book version to be that Lady Caroline's constant guard against grabbers had closed her off to love and, while Mr. Briggs did initially fall for her because of her looks, he was a good and decent man who could offer her much. The romance, which we never really see, is just another example of yet another mask being dropped.

If there were a sequel, you kind of wish that the Briggs reunite the whole crew each spring at the villa.

Ricki, that's so funny about you noticing the flowers not blooming at the correct time. I never would have gotten that. As you probably already know, Elizabeth von Arnim's first big literary success was Elizabeth and Her German Garden which is purely about her garden, probably written as an escape from her autocratic, older German husband. Perhaps you should check it out to see if she has the plants right there. I own the Virago version of that book but haven't read it since I couldn't imagine reading an entire novel about a garden. After enjoying this book so much, perhaps I should give it a shot.

[Yulia]

I like the idea of a closed heart, like a clenched fist.

I do prefer how the movie makes Mr. Briggs fall for Lady Caroline. Yes, it is better if he found out Rose was married before he goes off to fall for another woman. It made him seem so unreliable. I had to wonder whom he's leave Lady Caroline for, no matter how beautiful she was.

I kept on thinking while reading it what an awful curse Lady Caroline had, almost as if she were a Cassandra, not that she had a vision of the future, but she was forever misunderstood. It';s bad enough to never be left alone. It's quite cruel a curse, as amusing as it seems at first.

Wasn't it rather modern of them to use an ad to find each other? I know such things did happen back then, but it surprises me, I suppose, because people are still taken aback when you say you've met someone on the internet. As if it were impossible to tell about a person by their written voice.

[Wilhelmina]

I liked the movie version too, Happy, and, if it were my book. I would have probably written it that way. But I agree with you that the book focuses on the transformation of Lady Caroline, so that she no longer has contempt for those who find her so beautiful, but instead she encourages Mr. Briggs to look at her realistically.

I would almost rather picture your sequel than having it all written out by the au6thor. It sounds just right.

[Yulia]

I think it's very possible to write an entire book about a garden. Gardens inspire so many feelings and thoughts for me. I've written pieces simply about the plants I knew. And now I've known so many more since I was young. And a garden has the added dimension of creating an environment to encase and shape your musings. In my less practical moments, I think all I'm missing from life is a garden to explore. Central Park never did it for me.

[Gail]

I think Vida Sacville-West wrote such a book. As well as many others, I mean; her book jsut stands out in my memory.

[Melissa]

I enjoyed reading the book too. I was in the mood for something like this, a character study with a light touch. In its moods and themes, certainly a 'book for the ladies,' as somebody says upthread, with sexual politics rarely far from center stage. I am also an unrepentant romantic at heart.

On the flowers - I'm pretty sure that the author signalled how unnatural the quick succession of blooming flowers was, in part by having the English visitors notice how six months' worth of growth back home was compressed into a couple of weeks at San Salvatore. It was a fine symbol of the magical, even "unnatural" setting of the garden(s).

I was interested in the occasional comments from the point of view of the servants about the four women and especially their lack of interest in leaving the house -- trapped or enchanted by the place. All through the book people arrive but never seem to leave.

[Yulia]

Hmm, I never think of servants leaving a home. Don't they live there or just nearby? They're part of the magic, it would seem.

[Andrea]

I agree with Happyreader on the magic that can happen on vacation. There is a new perspective gained by going someplace different. There can be a sense of accessing a truer part of yourself by escaping the habits and patterns of normal daily life.

The new perspective allows each of the women to realize thought patterns and habits in their regular life that is inhibiting them. Lottie is afraid of Mellersh. Rose doesn't like what her husband does for a living so she has set herself up with a life separate from him that denies her feeling for him. Mrs. Fisher thinks of herself as an old woman whose best friends are either dead or old like her. She doesn't see there are new experiences out there. Lady Carolyn has had a few bad experiences with men and doesn't want to risk more so she keeps them all at a distance.

The time at San Salvatore allows them each to recognise their habits and to change them. As with most people after vacation, they may re-acquire some of their habits, but their realizations seem to go a bit deeper and I'd like to think that they will return to San Salvatore when they need a refresher.

[Melissa]

Oh, sorry Yulia, I wasn't very clear. What I meant was how the servants were struck by the four visiting women never wanting to step off the grounds of the villa. Von Arnim mentions the apparent somnolence of the place. I was thinking of this passage at the beginning of chapter 13:

"The uneventful days—only outwardly uneventful—slipped by in floods of sunshine, and the servants, watching the four ladies, came to the conclusion there was very little life in them.

"To the servants San Salvatore seemed asleep. No one came to teas, nor did the ladies go anywhere to teas. Other tenants in the spring had been far more active. There had been stir and enterprise; excursions had been made; Beppo's fly was ordered; people from Mezzago came over and spent the day [etc.] ..."

Beppo's fly seems only to be ordered when fetching luggage for the new arrivals, whether the women at the start or the men as they show up. That's part of what I meant by saying that the characters seem to come but never to go.

[Barbara]

Great comments, everyone. I finished reading this on my vacation, giving me a perfect mindset for it. My first thoughts were that it was a lovely little piece of fluff, but there is just enough vinegar to take it beyond that point. I also loved the use of language.

A few questions came to mind during the first few pages. I've never heard of an Agony Column which is where Mrs. Wilkins finds the advertisement on the first page of the book. Is that a common British expression? Also, I never think of women having clubs at this point in history, especially someone who has been as limited by her husband as Mrs. Wilkins or as limited by herself as Mrs. Arbuthnot. Am I totally off base?

[Graceann]

I just finished the book about an hour ago and wrote my reviews for Amazon and Goodreads before coming here.

I enjoyed both film versions and expected no real surprises, having watched the 1992 version so many times. Like others have mentioned, I do prefer the way Briggs falls in love with Lady Catherine in the film to the way it happens in the novel. In the book he seems like a vapid fool besotted by looks alone.

Everyone has a transformation here, and it's wonderful to see. Mr. Wilkins and Mrs. Fisher may be shocked by Lotty's announcement, but she makes it clear by saying "I'm sorry if you don't like it" that she isn't going to be backing down from anyone any longer. A sea change for her.

Ruth is in love again, with a very surprised Frederick (that whole sequence, as his head spins, is so adorable).

Caroline may have finally found love, and is chipping away at her shell.

Mrs. Fisher is finding that her life is not yet over and her friends are not all dead - she now has new loved ones and even though she may need "her stick" to get around, get around she shall.

What I found most amusing is that the character of Mellersh is written in such a way that everyone understands he is a walking caricature. Everyone except Mellersh himself, that is. The scene where Lady Catherine watches him tell the Briggs about the oleander, Briggs' OWN oleander, gave me the giggles. Only someone with as pure a heart as Lotty's could love such a doofus, though he thinks himself quite the catch.

Ricki, I had no idea the flowers were in the wrong order - what I know about gardens would fit onto the head of a pin. :-) I could feel the sun on my face, the water lapping over my ankles, and I could smell those flowers, as if they were right under my nose. It's been a while since I read anything so delightfully evocative.

Finally, imagine my shock and delight in discovering that the castello where this magic takes place actually exists (at least, the one that von Arnim visited before she wrote the novel exists). I've already started campaigning with my beloved Travel Agent (otherwise known as The Hubby) to see it for myself.

[Dottie]

Careful -- you may find you will have company. Ummm -- wistaria (wisteria in my lexicon) -- heavenly fragrance!

[Happyreader]

Just in case anyone wants to join Graceann and Dottie in Italy to experience the castello firsthand, Elizabeth von Arnim was staying at the Castello Brown in Portofino http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castello... which was owned at the time by British journalist Francis Yeats-Brown http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_....

For those of you who haven't seen the movie, this site includes some lovely visuals, including of Castello Brown, from the film: http://been-seen.com/article.cfm?id=1...

Elizabeth actually spent the month of April (and May) at the Castello Brown to escape the miserable spring weather -- and apparently income taxes -- in Switzerland. Her housemates were her good friend Maud Ritchie, daughter of British Chancellor of the Exchequer Lord Ritchie of Dundee, and a woman they had just met a few days prior to the stay, Mary Mallet, a talkative former lady-in-waiting to Queen Victoria. Elizabeth wrote the book during that stay.

[Marian]

A little late finishing, but I feel a need to comment on the flowers. Ricki, the flowers are blooming in a semi-tropical climate, different from that of England & northern US. This affects their bloom time, so it would seem different, but it's natural. When I visit my daughter in CA, i'm always impressed by the way stuff blooms out there. Actually, the blooming of the flowers all at once added one more touch to the s "enchanted" background and I thought that was very well done.

An "Agony" column is similar to Ann Landers.

Clubs in England & the US were more common in the early part of the century. They were very class restricted, each class of people had their own separate club. This was in the days before many people drove private cars, women walked to their favorite shops & instead of stopping at a restaurant for a cup of tea, they would go to their club, where they could meet people they knew from their own class.

I kept thinking ahead 20 years to the early 1940's & wonder how all the characters were affected by WW2. (One puzzlement -- Caroline never seems to think about her fiance killed in WW1.)

[Happyreader]

Oddly, as the most classically beautiful of all the women, Lady Caroline is the least stereotypically feminine of the four women. She's not sentimental and she's not emotional. She's very matter-of-fact. Frederick even thanks her for "acting like a man" when she's introduced to him at dinner. She doesn't seem likely to moon over or sentimentalize past romances, even tragic ones. It may also be why she chaffs so much at being fawned over. Being so beautiful means she's outwardly feminine without having to act girly. At the same time, it traps her in an identity that probably isn't her.

[Andrea]

Regarding the "agony column" - I thought I remembered another literary reference to the agony column. Thanks to that lovely modern duo - Google and Wikipedia, I found the following reference under "advice column":

Sherlock Holmes often read the "agony column", calling it "always instructive". [1] However, in that context, the "agony column" was a personals advertisements column, not an agony aunt's column.

[Barbara]

It does sound like the agony column was a personal advertisements column in this case. Though, Marian, your connection to the advice columns rings a long ago bell in my memory.

Thanks for the info on the women's clubs. I think this is the first time I've seen a reference to it in literature though men's clubs are a common setting. This all makes me remember one of the few times I saw a women's entrance to a building. It was in a men's club in Toronto during the 70's. I was amazed.

Hr, I love your point about Lady Caroline. Her exterior causes everyone to assign stereotypically feminine characteristics to her. If she were more ambitious intellectually, she probably would have been even more unhappy. It's hard to feel sorry for someone with all that money and good looks, but she is a bit trapped, probably by her family as well.

And, Marian, you're never too late to add to a discussion, particularly with this group.

[Yulia]

You know which character I loved and wanted to burn? Mrs. Fisher's stick. I winced whenever she mentioned it. I wanted to knock her on her head with it. But I also know how natural and common a habit it is for people to refer to their ambulatory aids when explaining why they cannot or would prefer not to do something. In her case, she was obviously abusing the mention of her stick when claiming rooms and privileges, but I suppose it's easier to speak of it than of her being of a higher social background or being older and more frail. Poor stick, I wish someone had hid it from her.

[Dean]

Im still becoming accustomed to this site and I posted this as a review: Spoiler Alert

I liked this book so much that I can assure you that I will not see the movie. The contrast of the inner lives of the characters against the external perceptions of the others was delightful and humourously described. In this regard, I wouldn't call the book a fantasy. It's insights into human nature and relationships are all too real.

Given these contrasts between the internal and the external, I couldn't call this a romance, either. I don't see that Mellersh-Watkins, who even to the end would have preferred that the others refer to him as such, changed in the least. His affections to his wife were purely the result of her new-found usefulness to his career. I fear that the blossoming of their relationship may depend on how his career blossoms as a result of these prospective clients. Which brings me to another bit of irony. When Lottie diffused the situation for Frederick by speaking up when Caroline joined them for dinner, she took potential business away from Mellersh who thrives on people's problems.


I erased it because I thought that for a review it gave too much away and that it belongs here.

Dottie commented that she hoped that I would change my mind about the movie. (Dottie you are quick.) I won't change my mind. For me the novel was great because of the descriptions of the internal lives of the characters. No movie can convey that. This book is one of the reasons I like to read.

[Happyreader]

I agree with you that the book is less fantasy and more a look at human interaction. It's the lush setting that gives the book the romantic feel. I also agree that Mellersh's initial change of demeanor is based on his own self-interest -- but it's also based on the change in interaction with Lottie. While the relationship will likely change, as all relationships do, it's doubtful that it'll revert to what it was before. Lottie has changed and how she interacts with others has changed so she'll never again be the meek, frightened wife. Essentially that's what the book is saying. If you change your social assumptions and how you interact, the world becomes a very different place. If what you put out there changes, what you get back is also altered.

I hear you on your reluctance on seeing the movie. Unless you have a VCR, it's difficult to find anyways but the movie really did do an excellent job of conveying the internal machinations of the characters. Yulia, in the movie, the last shot is of Mrs. Fisher discarding the stick by planting it in the ground and it being blossoming, basically a take-off of the oleander tree story. So it wasn't burned but it was dispossed of and transformed.