The Enchanted April characters

Appears from the start

A shy, imaginative London housewife who notices an advertisement for an Italian castle to rent during April. Feeling overlooked in her marriage and starved of beauty, she impulsively decides to answer it. Her confidence grows as soon as she commits to the journey, and she has a striking habit of trusting that happiness will spread to everyone around her.

Appears from the start

A serious, religious woman whom Lotty recognizes at her women's club and recruits as a partner in the Italian rental. Rose devotes much of her life to church work and feels estranged from her husband, whose profession and social world she disapproves of. She longs for peace but initially treats pleasure with suspicion.

Also known as Scrap

First appears in chapter 4

A young aristocratic beauty who answers Lotty and Rose's advertisement for two additional tenants. Constantly pursued and admired in England, she goes to Italy chiefly to be left alone. Her cool reserve is a defense against people who respond to her appearance without trying to know her.

First appears in chapter 4

An elderly widow steeped in memories of eminent Victorians and convinced that rank, age, and experience entitle her to precedence. She joins the Italian party expecting privacy, orderly meals, and deference from the younger women, and quickly tries to establish control over the best sitting room.

First appears in chapter 2

Lotty's husband, a solicitor who takes professional and social respectability very seriously. At home he is economical with Lotty's allowance and inclined to treat her as impractical. Her unexplained new confidence puzzles him before the Italian holiday begins.

First appears in chapter 3

Rose's husband, a successful author whose worldly historical biographies offend her moral principles. He uses a pen name and enjoys the fashionable life that Rose avoids. Their mutual disappointment has produced a courteous but lonely marriage.

First appears in chapter 11

The young English owner of San Salvatore, the medieval castle rented by the four women. Friendly, enthusiastic, and susceptible to beauty, he arrives in Italy after corresponding with Rose about the arrangements.

First appears in chapter 6

The Italian servant who manages the household at San Salvatore. She speaks little English, while most of the guests speak little Italian, so practical questions are often settled through gesture, assumption, and Lotty's optimistic confidence.