When four women rent a villa in Italy for a month, they find their lives changed for the better as a result—especially their love lives—in this example of romance fiction. Elizabeth Von Arnim narrates this story through the third-person omniscient point of view, letting readers see into the hearts of all the characters.
Lotty Wilkins, a wife “still somewhat young,” sees an ad in the paper for a villa in Italy for the month of April and notices another woman looking at the same ad. Lotty makes an unusual move and introduces herself to Rose Arbuthnot; the two new friends decide that they can afford to rent the villa if they can find two more to share the cost, and so they advertise for roommates. Mousy Lotty has fallen in love with the idea of the villa and is already being transformed by the place’s magic. Only two women answer their advertisement: the beautiful Lady Caroline Dester and Mrs. Fisher, a lonely childless widow who had known many famous Victorian writers when she was a girl. Although these four women are virtually strangers to one another, they decide to go in together and rent the villa.
The ladies arrive severally at their destination in the beautiful spring sunshine of Italy. Mr. Briggs, the owner of the villa, is a single man who grew up as an orphan; he is love-struck by Lady Caroline when he sees her. Getting adjusted to the villa is easy, but adjusting to one another takes a little time. The four ladies are enjoying the spacious villa and the relaxing vacation, so Lotty invites her husband to take his vacation early and join her. Rose dutifully writes to invite her husband to join them, but he has already made his own plans to pursue an illicit romance, not realizing he will find his wife sharing the rented villa of the woman he is pursuing. By good luck, Lotty is the first to meet him when he arrives, and she accidentally saves the day by blurting out his presence and his relationship to Rose just as Lady Caroline walks into dinner; this knowledge confirms Lady Caroline’s earlier disinclination to encourage Frederick’s attentions. And now that Frederick knows that his marital status is known to Lady Caroline, he comes to his senses. The villa works its magic on him as well, and he and Rose are able to renew their love.
With the two married couples renewed in love and Mrs. Fisher happily attached to Lotty and her husband, only the beautiful Lady Caroline remains to be transformed. Lotty has already recognized the attraction Mr. Briggs feels for Lady Caroline, and she wisely brings them together. Sure enough, the two are soon in love.
By the end of this idyllic vacation, two married couples have repaired the ravages that mundane day-to-day life can exact on the fragility of love; an elderly lady has found a loving family to take an interest in her welfare; Lady Caroline has discovered that she is more than just a pretty face and that true love can indeed be found even for beautiful women; and Mr. Briggs finds the fulfillment his orphaned soul has been searching for in the relationship he develops with Lady Caroline. The sentimental but charming novel emphasizes the positive effect that setting can have in shaping character for the better, it shows how love can transform every woman into a beauty and a beauty into a happy woman, and it emphasizes the way that love can allow yet more love to grow in the world.—Aleta Bowman
Bibliography
Joannu, Maroula. Women Writers of the Thirties: Gender, Politics, and History. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999.
Categories: British Literature, Literature, Novel Analysis
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