BEST BOOKS ON... SPRING
OUR columnist suggests novels to help with changing chang times in life. THE clocks have gone forward. I’ve seen narcissi, crocuses, cr even daffodils. dils. Like sap, my hopes are rising.
Could last wee weekend’s plummeting temperatures h have been the final door slam of that tha long, cold winter? Might spring ha have, at last, sprung? About blooming time!
The Enchanted April, by Elizabeth von Arnim, will warm tired bones and soothe vexed minds. It begins in the Twenties, ‘in a woman’s club in London on a February afternoon — an uncomfortable club and a miserable afternoon’, with Mrs Wilkins spotting a newspaper notice.
‘To those who appreciate Wistaria [sic] and Sunshine. Small medieval Italian Castle on the shores of the Mediterranean to be let furnished for the month of April.’
Lottie Wilkins, a lawyer’s wife, has never been to Italy, but is instantly transported. Spotting the similarly enthralled Rose Arbuthnot, whom she knows only by sight, she introduces herself with the notion that they should raid their ‘rainy day funds’ to take the house. ‘Staggered’ by the £60 monthly rental, they advertise for two companions and are joined by beautiful young Lady Caroline and vinegary Mrs Fisher.
Italy works such magic, it loosens that doughty matron’s stay, as well as proving the salvation of at least one of the women’s relationships.
The transformative potency of an Italian spring is also central to E. M. Forster’s A Room With A View.
Lucy Honeychurch, travelling in Florence with her fussy cousin Charlotte Bartlett, joins a day trip to the countryside. Separated from the main party, Lucy is directed by the Italian driver through a field of violets to George Emerson. He strides forward and kisses her.
Spring fever strikes closer to home, too. Think of the opening of Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind In The Willows, when Mole ventures outdoors: ‘After the seclusion of the cellarage he had lived in so long, the carol of happy birds fell on his dulled hearing almost like a shout.’ At the riverbank, he meets Rat.
So, go on, put a spring in your step — it could be the start of a new, bold adventure or friendship.