Published in 1922 by Elizabeth Von Arnim, The Enchanted April, is a beautiful novel about four strangers whose hearts transform one April when vacationing together in Italy. Currently, the book is free on Kindle and on google reader or by simply googling the title. The movie of the same name with Polly Walker and Alfred Molina is quite charming, too. The simple straightforward plot is refreshing and uplifting, just like a nice spring day after winter.
The story follows four women and their plan to escape dreary London one spring. Lotty Wilkins is the bumbling, frumpy housewife who wants to get away from her husband and has a knack for saying awkward things- mostly because she says whatever comes into her head. One of her best lines is " I saw Keats the other day, in front of his house where he used to live..." Keats had died a hundred years before that statement. Rose Arbuthnot is a pious, strict woman who atones for her husbands alleged immorality by constant charity work. Her stern front is actually a fence around her knotted, grief-filled heart. The other two women, Mrs. Fisher and Lady Caroline are very wealthy and have their own reasons for a month long stay at the medieval castle, San Salvatore, on the coast of Italy.
There aren't too many deep and complex truths embedded in to the plot (though many Jane Austen-esque themes), except for the one that says beauty transforms. Overwhelming beauty has a strong power to alter us, especially from the inside out. And that is what happens in San Salvatore for each of the women. There is deep magic in wisteria, roses, snapdragons, pergola, cherry trees, peach trees and an old romantic castle on a beautiful bay outside of Genoa. Magic that helps these women find the love within them. The novel tracks the simple changes in them. Each goes from being drab and lacking into glorious creatures filled with love. For where beauty is found, love sprouts. At least, that is what the book argues. And love is what makes them truly beautiful. (like the countryside).
And what transformations these women experience! They begin to love freely and happily, finding contentment within their souls and with others. I hopefully am not spoiling the plot because I rather wish to tempt you to read it for the message of hope it gives: beauty can touch us and change us. We can find the love within us to love what is around us. And I think that is a very needed message in a world filled with fear, dread, and sorrow. All right, not all of us might not be able to take a trip to Italy to release the bonds around our souls, but I think the spirit of the method is still applicable. Find beauty. F forge relationships that help the seeds of goodness grow when we have troubled hearts.
And so the book is a great story of how the gospel works. Granted, it is not Christian or religious in any overt ways, but all good literature is that way. It is better to show than tell, fiction 101. But the takeaway and showing is clear: beauty is a form of grace and when God's beauty, God's grace touches us, we cannot help but be transformed. We cannot help but find hope. Love others. Love ourselves. Find joy. Isn't that why Jesus came? So that we can have life and have it fully. For these four women, it took a trip to Italy and wisteria to grasp that. Perhaps, so should we.
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