Mrs Fisher and Caroline, who arrived a day earlier, claim the best rooms at the top of the house. After a troubled journey, Lotty and Rose arrive at San Salvatore, and are enchanted by the beautiful house and garden in full bloom. To defray expenses, Lotty and Rose find two other guests to join them: Mrs Fisher, an imperious widow who name-drops dead literary celebrities she knew as a child, and Lady Caroline Dester, a beautiful socialite who is bored with her life of privilege and the predatory attentions of men. Lotty and Rose meet the castle owner, a young artist named Thomas Briggs, who is immediately attracted to Rose. Rose, who is unhappily married to Frederick, an author of salacious biographies about royal mistresses, is reluctant to spend money that could be used for her philanthropic work, but is eventually persuaded. Lotty, who is in a loveless marriage with the social-climbing solicitor Mellersh, begs Rose to join her and rent the castle together. Two Englishwomen, Lotty Watkins and Rose Arbuthnot, meet at a women’s club on a rainy afternoon in London, both drawn to a newspaper advertisement to rent an Italian castle (promising “wistaria and sunshine”) for the month of April. What it’s about: London and Portofino, 1922. Elizabeth von Arnim, The Enchanted April (1922)
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