The Enchanted April

Character Guide

Spoiler-free — fuller detail (with spoilers, if you want them) lives in the reader's Guide tab.

Lotty Wilkins (Mrs. Wilkins)

A shy, impulsive Englishwoman worn down by a dull marriage and rainy London, who impulsively answers an advertisement for an Italian castle holiday and dreams of transformation through beauty.

Rose Arbuthnot (Mrs. Arbuthnot)

A serious, charity-focused woman estranged in spirit from her novelist husband; she and Lotty become unlikely friends and co-organizers of the San Salvatore holiday.

Mrs. Fisher

An elderly, formal widow steeped in memories of famous Victorian men she once knew; she joins the party as the fourth guest and insists on quiet, order, and respectability.

Lady Caroline Dester (Scrap (implied by others' admiration, though not yet named so early))

A young, beautiful, and socially weary aristocrat who wants nothing more than to escape everyone who knows her; she is the fourth woman recruited for San Salvatore.

Mellersh Wilkins (Mr. Wilkins)

Lotty's proper, status-conscious solicitor husband, unaware at first of her holiday plans and generally more concerned with propriety and career advancement.

Frederick Arbuthnot

Rose's husband, a writer of racy biographies of royal mistresses, who lives somewhat apart from Rose due to her disapproval of his work.

Domenico

The devoted, talkative gardener at San Salvatore who tends the grounds and is immediately smitten with Lady Caroline.

Briggs (Thomas Briggs)

The young owner/landlord of San Salvatore, who appears partway through the story and is instantly captivated by Lady Caroline.

Glossary

fly

A light, horse-drawn carriage for hire, used by the women to travel from the station toward San Salvatore.

badinage

Light, teasing conversation or banter, referenced when Mrs. Fisher imagines men being reduced to trivial flirtation around Lady Caroline.

combat de générosité

A French phrase meaning 'a contest of generosity,' used to describe Lotty and Mellersh's playful mutual insistence on giving each other space in their small room.

bear garden

An old idiom for a noisy, chaotic, unruly place, used to describe what the dinner table was like before Mr. Wilkins's arrival civilized it.

Judas tree

A flowering tree (Cercis siliquastrum) with pink-purple blossoms, mentioned as visible from Lady Caroline's room at San Salvatore.

Perugini's backgrounds

A reference to the Italian Renaissance painter Perugino, whose paintings often featured serene, hazy hill landscapes similar to those around San Salvatore.

references (in hiring/renting sense)

Character or background endorsements requested before agreeing to share lodging with a stranger, reflecting the period's social caution among genteel women.

vicar

A parish clergyman in the Church of England; referenced as a figure of moral propriety whose disapproval Rose imagines regarding Lotty's freer talk.

Chianti

An Italian red wine, consumed at dinner and playfully blamed for loosening the women's tongues and inhibitions.

British Museum official

A period term for a professional employed at the British Museum, used to describe Mrs. Arbuthnot's husband's occupation and social standing.

Open the full interactive Guide in the reader →