The Enchanted April
Contributors: Terence de Vere White (Introduction)
Series: Virago Modern Classics
Publisher: Virago Press Limited
Published: 1992
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 370
ISBN-13: 9780860685173
Genres: Fiction
First sentence: It began in a woman's club in London on a February afternoon,—an uncomfortable club, and a miserable afternoon—when Mrs. Wilkins, who had come down from Hampstead to shop and had lunched at her club, took up The Times from the table in the smoking-room, and running her listless eye down the Agony Column saw this: To Those who Appreciate Wistaria and Sunshine.
Description: Colour, fragrance, light, sea; instead of Shaftesbury Avenue, and the wet omnibuses, and the fish department at Shoolbread's ... and dinner, and to-morrow the same and the day after the same and always the same.

A discreet advertisement in The Times, addressed to "those who Appreciate Wistaria and Sunshine ...", is the prelude to a revelatory month for four very different women. High above a bay on the Italian Riviera stands San Salvatore, a mediaeval castle. Beckoned to this haven are Mrs Wilkins, Mrs Arbuthnot, Mrs Fisher and Lady Caroline Dester, each quietly craving a respite. Lulled by the mediterranean spring, the violet mountains and sweet-scented flowers, they gradually shed their public skins and discover a harmony each of them has longed for but none has known. First published in 1922, reminiscent of Elizabeth and Her German Garden, this delightful novel is imbued with the descriptive power and light-hearted irreverence for which Elizabeth von Arnim is so popular.