The Enchanted April

Four strangers, one medieval Italian castle, one enchanted month - the cozy classic behind the beloved film.

On a wet February afternoon in London, Mrs. Wilkins reads an advertisement she cannot afford and cannot resist: a small mediaeval castle on the Italian Riviera, to be let for the month of April, "To Those who Appreciate Wistaria and Sunshine." She gathers three very different women to share it, and the castle of San Salvatore quietly goes to work on every one of them.

First published in 1922, The Enchanted April is Elizabeth von Arnim's radiant comedy of renewal - witty, wise, and warm as the Mediterranean sun. Written in the real castle above Portofino where it is set, and later the source of the Oscar-nominated 1991 film, it has been prescribed for a century as the perfect comfort read: a book that changes its characters, and sends its readers looking for a little enchantment of their own.

This Annotated Edition includes:

• The complete 1922 novel, all twenty-two chapters, freshly typeset

• An original introduction on von Arnim's remarkable life and the novel's long afterlife

• Notes on the Text decoding the real Portofino castle, the period London it flees, and von Arnim's charming usages

• A Reader's Guide with discussion questions for book clubs and solo readers

• A concise von Arnim timeline

Pack your bag for San Salvatore. The wistaria is in bloom.