Audiobook Sample
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- Title: Enchanted April
- Author: Elizabeth Von Arnim
- Narrator: Diana Kiesners
- Length: 10:05:00
- Version: Abridged
- Release Date: 01/01/2011
- Publisher: LibriVox
- Genre: Fiction & Literature, General
- ISBN13: SABLIBX978993
The first time I encountered “Enchanted April”, I was nursing a broken heart in a Lisbon hostel, my backpack stuffed with dog-eared paperbacks. A fellow traveler pressed this 1922 gem into my hands, whispering ‘This will heal you’ with the certainty of someone who’d been transformed by its magic. Now, revisiting it through Diana Kiesners’ luminous narration in this free LibriVox audiobook, I’m struck anew by how Von Arnim’s masterpiece transcends its post-WWI setting to speak to anyone yearning for reinvention.
Kiesners’ performance is like watching sunlight move through a prism – she gives each of the four women distinct vocal hues. Mrs. Wilkins’ tentative hopefulness flutters in higher registers, while Mrs. Fisher’s aristocratic rigidity resonates in clipped consonants. When Lady Caroline murmurs ‘I want to be alone, but not lonely,’ the narrator’s breathy delivery makes you feel the ache of that paradox in your bones. The Italian setting becomes a fifth character through Kiesners’ warm cadence, her vowels stretching like lazy afternoons as she describes wisteria ‘dripping like lavender rain.’
Von Arnim’s genius lies in how she maps internal landscapes through physical ones. Listening while walking through Brooklyn’s Botanic Garden last spring, I suddenly understood how the characters’ blossoming mirrors the villa’s gardens. The scene where Mrs. Arbuthnot sheds her stiff collar had me pausing near a cherry blossom tree, remembering my own moment of liberation – tossing my corporate tie into the Thames during a similar Italian escape years ago. Kiesners captures these metamorphoses with exquisite timing, letting silence bloom between sentences like the novel’s famous camellias.
What makes this free audiobook particularly precious is how its production echoes the story’s themes. The occasional rawness of LibriVox’s volunteer recording (a distant dog bark here, a turned page there) becomes part of the charm, much like San Salvatore’s imperfect beauty. When compared to commercial productions of similar works like “A Room with a View”, this version feels more intimate – as if we’re being read to by a bookish friend in a sunlit library.
The novel’s subtle feminism resonates differently in audio form. Hearing Mrs. Wilkins find her voice literally made me cheer aloud during my morning commute. Von Arnim’s witty narration – ‘Lottie’s husband thought she was in the garden, but really she was in Greece’ – gains delicious irony when spoken. Kiesners highlights these subversive moments with perfect comic timing, her delivery walking the tightrope between satire and sincerity.
For contemporary listeners, the story offers surprising relevance. The women’s ‘digital detox’ (minus the digital) feels strikingly modern – their escape from London’s gossip mirrors our need to disconnect from social media’s cacophony. I found myself taking the long way home to prolong listening, just as I once lingered over limoncello on the Amalfi Coast, unwilling to let the enchantment end.
While the audio lacks professional polish, this becomes part of its handmade charm. The sections where different narrators take over (a quirk of LibriVox’s collaborative model) create a delightful echo of the novel’s themes of community and shared transformation. It’s a reminder that beauty often lives in imperfections – much like the cracked terra cotta pots in San Salvatore’s garden that still manage to nurture glorious blooms.
May your listening journey be as transformative as an April in Italy,
Marcus
Marcus Rivera
