The Enchanted April in Clean Reads

Jun 15, 2019 Sassa rated it liked it · review of another edition

A very high 3-stars! Should I mark it a 4? Perhaps.
I loved reading of the travel and the beautiful locale. The power of traveling is mighty powerful! Even traveling through a book can be transporting. I could see and smell the sea and the flowers. I could taste the food. Von Arnim did a beautiful job evoking her readers’ senses.
I enjoyed the story but disappointed in some of the characters....NOT the writing of them, but the personalities they exhibited. I wanted the women to rediscover love bu ...more

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Jun 19, 2012 Heather rated it liked it

Not sure how to rate this one. I guess I'd give it a 3.5 stars. I liked it. At some parts I loved it. But the ending left me unsatisfied even though it was technically a "happy ending." I'm still anxious to see the movie and what they did with it. I really loved the female characters in this book, and the setting, and the storyline, but the men were all egotistical idiots (in my opinion) -- after reading more about the author, I think this was probably how she viewed men. Maybe that is all part ...more

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Apr 24, 2023 Janet rated it liked it

I think I enjoyed reading this more than I enjoyed the plot. Another of my "cosy" interwar years of British class system, this story follows four women who escape from dreary London for a seaside Italian villa in April. It's luminous but not very realistic. I enjoyed the women but the men were dull. ...more

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Jul 01, 2021 Cami rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, italy, library

“Happy? Poor, ordinary, everyday word. But what could one say, how could one describe it? It was as though she could hardly stay inside herself, it was as though she were too small to hold so much of joy, it was as though she were washed through with light. And how astonishing to feel this sheer bliss, for here she was, not doing and not going to do a single unselfish thing, not going to do a thing she didn't want to do… Now she had taken off all her goodness and left it behind her like a heap i ...more

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Mar 03, 2008 Becky rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

I recently re-read this book. . and enjoyed it just as much or more! It is a slower paced book, but the descriptions are so beautiful. It weaves a bit of magic in the lives of ordinary people who are transformed by what they learn about themselves and others.
The movie is very well-done and stays very close to the book.

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May 22, 2008 Teri rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-the-book-watch-the-movie, fiction, 2008

Finally found a copy of this book! Look forward to reading it!

A charming,entertaining read. Once the ladies arrived in Italy I was captivated. Loved the introspection of all four ladies and the wonderful descriptions of the nature around the castle.

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