Elizabeth Von Arnim

"A handsome stranger enters Lucy Entwhistle's life on the very day of her father's death. Everard Wemyss is mourning the recent loss of his wife, and he and Lucy are drawn together in their shared experience of grief. A remarkable bond forms between the despairing couple, the thought of separation proves intolerable, and they are quickly married and settled into Everard's isolated country home, The Willows. But everything about the mansion is shadowed...

Since her mother's death Jennifer has devoted years of her life to her father, managing the family home and acting as his secretary. After the sudden announcement that he has taken a new wife, Jennifer, at 33, seizes the opportunity to lead an independent life. With a humorous tone, this novel explores the familial and societal expectations placed on single women during the interwar years.

The charming, slyly comic novel of romantic longing and transformation that inspired the Oscar-nominated film
 
Four very different women, looking to escape dreary London for the sunshine of Italy, take up an offer advertised in the Times for a “small medieval Italian Castle on the shores of the Mediterranean to be let furnished for the month of April.” As each blossoms in the warmth of the Italian spring, quite...