Written by Elizabeth von Arnim (1866-1941), published in 1922, and read really superbly in my audio-version by Nadia May, this was an absolute delight.

We first meet Mrs Wilkins (Lotty) and Mrs Arbuthnot (Rose) on a rainy day in London. They're both unhappily married. Lotty is the wife of Mellersh, an ambitious and penny-pinching lawyer, who constantly looks down on her. Rose's husband is Frederick, the author of racy memoirs of royal courtesans (a line of literature that his wife finds morally objectionable), and he pretty much ignores her. They're both, then, disillusioned, and unutterably bored with their staid, respectable, dutiful lives.

So when they see an advertisement in the newspaper for a castle in Italy that is available to rent during April, they egg each other on until they've agreed to do it.


Bari, 2019

To spread the cost, they advertise for fellow vacationers, and end up with Mrs Fisher, an elderly widow who has not yet successfully transitioned from the Victorian era, and Lady Caroline Dester (nicknamed Scrap), a beautiful socialite who lost the love of her life in the war, and is now not only thoroughly bored by the shallow life she leads, but also constantly plagued by the unwanted attentions of predatory men.

The members of the party variously make it to San Salvatore, where the castle is situated (the model was Portofino), and the building and its gardens and its environment start to work their magic on each of them.

Lotty is instantly entranced. To her, San Salvatore is heaven. She doesn't want to fight with anyone; she forgives everyone; she even starts to wonder if she has been quite fair on Mellersh, and invites him to come and join her.

Rose is a little harder to bend. She finds Mrs Fisher irritating, and is slow to follow Lotty's example by inviting Frederick to join her (because she fears an indifferent rebuff). But she does start to realize that her judgemental attitudes have helped to push him away, and she wants to make amends.

Mrs Fisher, too, slowly unbends, and comes to understand that life and human affection are more important than memories of dead Victorians.

And Scrap not only strikes up a relaxed relationship with Lotty, but also -- eventually -- finds a love interest. More on this in a minute.



Lotty has fey qualities that enable her not only to read minds and understand hidden motivations, but also to "see" people from the past and situations still in the future. No less than the locality -- and acting in synergy with its fairytale qualities -- she slowly works her magic on the others too, persuading them to believe "in the transformative power of love" .

Into this scenario (which is full of highly evocative, sensuous description, as well as laugh-out-loud comedy) come three men: the two invited husbands, and Thomas Briggs, the owner of the castle, who drops by on his way somewhere else.

And this is where the plot falls down slightly, I think. Von Arnim wants a happy ending, it seems. So under the influence of the magical San Salvatore, the two couples start to knit back together. Yet this is not something we're entirely happy about, as readers. We know (but the wives do not) that Mellersh came because he saw the presence of Mrs Fisher and Lady Caroline as a networking opportunity, and Frederick came because he had been pursuing (under his authorial name) Lady Caroline in London. It's true that good things can come of bad intentions. But we worry a little about Lotty and Rose, and suspect that -- once back in England and the old routine -- their two dogs of spouses might revert to type.

Thomas is even more flaky. His reason for "dropping by" is the attraction he felt for Rose when he met her (not knowing she was married). And before Frederick turns up, the two of them spend a day together in the vicinity of San Salvatore, and obviously enjoy each other's company. But then, as soon as Thomas meets Lady Caroline, he is utterly bowled over by her. Everything else -- including the ability to act normally -- goes out of his head.

Lady Caroline initially reacts to this attention with her accustomed disgust (although her beauty and charm never allow the negative emotion she is experiencing to penetrate her interlocutor). But then she too starts to soften. Lotty eventually confides that she "sees" them as a couple.

I find this very hard to credit, and it's definitely the weak point of the book. Lady Caroline can surely do better than this weathervane, who knows nothing of his own mind...

Thankfully, there is no ancient deus ex machina lined up for Mrs Fisher. But she has definitely been brought out of her shell (principally thanks to Lotty), and we imagine she will be a happier woman going forward.

The ending, then, I found somewhat rushed, and not a little contrived. It would have been better, I think, if von Arnim had taken a crueller line, and not attempted to square the circle of beneficent paradise and essentially recalcitrant men.



Despite this criticism, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. It's quite a feat to make a text wonderfully atmospheric and also rip-roaringly funny. And although she fudges the ending, there is a real acknowledgment of the various challenges women face in this post-WWI world.

I would certainly read more of von Arnim's work, not least because she's a fascinating character in her own right. Born Mary Annette Beauchamp in Sydney, Australia, where her British-born father had made his fortune as a shipping merchant, she moved to London with her family when she was three. She was a sufficiently talented organist to contemplate a career as a professional, but her parents wanted her to marry, and took her off on a tour of Europe with that aim in mind: "While staying in Rome, she met the newly widowed Graf Henning von Arnim-Schlagenthin, a member of the Prussian aristocracy and a friend of the Wagner family. He was captivated by the talented, charming and vivacious young woman, and so impressed by her organ playing that he whisked her off, in the company of her parents, to Bayreuth to be introduced to the heart of Prussian society, and to perform Bach and Liszt on the organ before Liszt’s daughter, Cosima Wagner." The two married in 1891, and Mary joined the Prussian aristocracy.

She published her first highly successful novel, Elizabeth and the German Garden, in 1898: "As 'Elizabeth', she established an international literary reputation. Her works were usually published with the phrase 'by the author of Elizabeth and her German Garden' as the only guide to their authorship... Thus 'Elizabeth' became the name by which she was known to the reading public, her friends and even most of her family."

Her German husband died in 1910, and she subsequently divided her time between London and Montana in Switzerland. She later moved to France, and then to the United States.

What an interesting life... Definitely worth pursuing.