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Description edit
Four women rent a chateau on a remote Italian island to try to come to grips with their lives and relationships. They explore the differences in their personalities, reassess their goals and reexamine their relationships in a sisterly fashion.
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Summary edit
Four women living in London during the rainy gray days of winter long to get away for different reasons. They all meet when one of them decides to rent a villa in sunny Italy and they pool their resources for a month's holiday. Each woman has a different situation and have to learn to get... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)
Characters/People edit
- Lottie Wilkins: Good, conservative, solicitor's wife who longs for some adventure. It is she who first sees the ad touting "wisteria and sunshine," which leads her to ask Rose if she'll share the rental.
- Rose Arbuthnot: Very unhappy in her marriage to Frederick, who is a writer of biographies of royal mistresses. She's a minister's daughter and finds her husband's chosen subject matter embarrassing.
- Mrs. Fisher: Add a description of this character.
- Lady Caroline Dester
- Frederick Arbuthnot
- George Briggs
- Mellersh Wilkins
Quotes edit
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“It was essential to her comfort thatshe should be able to be apart, left alone, not talked to. The others ought to like it best, too. Why herd? One had enough of that in England, with one's relations and friends -- oh, the numbers of them! -- pressing on one continually. Having successfully escaped them for four weeks why continue, and with persons having no earthly claim on one, to herd?”
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“Browning managed macaroni wonderfully. She remembered watching him one day when he came to lunch with her father, and a dish of it had been ordered as a compliment to his connection with Italy. Fascinating, the way it went in. No chasing round the plate, no slidings off the fork, no subsequent protrusions of loose ends -- just one dig, one whisk, one thrust, one gulp, and lo, yet another poet had been nourished.”
Setting & Locations edit
Show all 11 settingsFirst Sentence edit
It began in a woman's club in London on a February afternoon, - an uncomfortable club, and a miserable afternoon - when Mrs. Wilkins, who had come down from Hampstead to shop and had lunched at her club, took up The Times from the table in the smoking-room, and running her listless eye down the Agony Column saw this: To Those who Appreciate Wistaria and Sunshine.
Themes & Symbolism edit
Series & Lists edit
This is book 3 of 10 in Publishers Weekly Bestselling Novels in 1923. (authoritative list)
Preceded by His Children's Children, and followed by Babbitt.
Authors & Contributors edit
- Elizabeth Von Arnim (Author)
First Edition edit
Original Language: English
Publisher: Mcamillan and Co., Ltd.
Country: Add the country of publication.
Publication Date: 1922
ISBN: Add the ISBN.
Page Count: 361
Publisher: Mcamillan and Co., Ltd.
Country: Add the country of publication.
Publication Date: 1922
ISBN: Add the ISBN.
Page Count: 361
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
- Dewey: 823.914
Subjects edit
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Movie Connections edit
- Enchanted April (IMDb): 1992
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