Dear classics readers,
Those of us reading Anna Karenina are currently enjoying Tolstoy’s wonderful description of spring arriving on Levin’s country estate. To celebrate the end of the winter – with the spring equinox falling this Thursday – here are ten titles to read in the springtime.
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim (1922)
Beguiling, witty, and gently comedic, The Enchanted April tells the tale of four very different women who escape dreary London for an Italian castle in Portofino, shortly after World War I. Elizabeth von Arnim’s ageless novel compellingly responds to the eternal question of how to achieve happiness in life. An immediate best seller upon its first publication, the story of unlikely female friendship, newfound empowerment, rekindled love, and unexpected romance has been adapted for stage and screen, including a 1991 Oscar-nominated film, and a Tony-nominated play in 2003.
[UK:] Alma Classics | 256 pages
[US:] Warbler Classics | 176 pages | afterword by Ulrich Baer
Springtime in a Broken Mirror by Mario Benedetti (1982)
Santiago is trapped. Taken political prisoner in Montevideo after a brutal military coup, he can do nothing but write letters to his family, and try to stay sane. Far away in a different country, his father tries to adjust to life in exile, his daughter marvels at the big city, and his beautiful, careworn wife finds herself irresistibly drawn to another man, as day by day Santiago edges closer to freedom. Told with tenderness and fury through the voices of a family torn apart by history, Springtime in a Broken Mirror asks whether shattered lives can ever truly be mended.
[UK:] Penguin Modern Classics | 192 pages | translated by Nick Caistor
[US:] New Press | 192 pages | translated by Nick Caistor
The Beginning of Spring by Penelope Fitzgerald (1988)
It is March 1913, and the grand old city of Moscow is stirring herself to meet the beginning of spring. Change is in the air, and nowhere more so than at 22 Lipka Street, the home of English printer Frank Reid. One day Frank’s wife Nellie takes the train back to England, with no explanation, leaving him with their three young children. Into his life comes Lisa Ivanovna, a country girl, untroubled to the point of seeming simple. But is she? And why has Frank’s accountant Selwyn, gone to such lengths to bring them together? And who is the passionate Volodya, who breaks into the press at night?
[UK:] Fourth Estate | 258 pages | introduced by Andrew Miller
[US:] Harper Paperbacks | 272 pages | introduced by Andrew Miller
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (1908)
The Wild Wood seems a terrifying place to Mole, until one day he pokes his nose out of his burrow and finds it’s full of friends. He meets brave Ratty, kind old Badger and the rascally Mr Toad, and together they go adventuring . . . but the Wild Wood doesn’t just contain friends, there are also the sinister weasels and stoats, and they capture Toad Hall when Mr Toad is in jail. How will he escape? And can the friends fight together to save Toad Hall? Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows is a classic animal adventure that charms and enthrals.
[UK:] HarperCollins Children’s Classics | 272 pages
[US:] Penguin Threads | 176 pages | foreword by Gregory Maguire
In the Springtime of the Year by (1973)
After just a year of close, loving marriage, Ruth has been widowed. Her beloved husband, Ben, has been killed in a tragic accident and Ruth is left, suddenly and totally bereft. Unable to share her sorrow and grief with Ben's family, who are dealing with their pain in their own way, Ruth becomes increasingly isolated, burying herself in her cottage in the countryside as the seasons change around her. Only Ben’s young brother Jo, is able to reach out beyond his own grief, to offer Ruth the compassion which might reclaim her from her own devastating unhappiness.
[UK:] Vintage | 256 pages
[US:] David R. Godine | 176 pages
Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima (1969)
Tokyo, 1912. The closed world of the ancient aristocracy is being breached for the first time by outsiders - rich provincial families, a new and powerful political and social elite. Kiyoaki has been raised among the elegant Ayakura family - members of the waning aristocracy - but he is not one of them. Coming of age, he is caught up in the tensions between old and new, and his feelings for the exquisite, spirited Satoko, observed from the sidelines by his devoted friend Honda.
[Spring Snow is the first volume of Mishima’s tetralogy The Sea of Fertility, which we discussed the other day.]
[UK:] Vintage Classics | 400 pages | translated by Michael Gallagher
[US:] Vintage | 400 pages | translated by Michael Gallagher
The Lark by Edith Nesbit (1922)
It’s 1919 and Jane and her cousin Lucilla leave school to find that their guardian has gambled away their money, leaving them with only a small cottage in the English countryside. In an attempt to earn their living, the orphaned cousins embark on a series of misadventures - cutting flowers from their front garden and selling them to passers-by, inviting paying guests who disappear without paying - all the while endeavouring to stave off the attentions of male admirers, in a bid to secure their independence.
[UK:] Penguin | 272 pages | introduced by Penelope Lively
[US:] Dean Street Press | 268 pages | introduced by Charlotte Moore
In Pursuit of Spring by Edward Thomas (1914)
In mid to late March 1913, as the storm clouds of the Great War which was to claim his life gathered, Edward Thomas took a bicycle ride from Clapham to the Quantock Hills. The poet recorded his journey through his beloved South Country and his account was published as In Pursuit of Spring in 1914. Regarded as one of his most important prose works, it stands as an elegy for a world now lost. What is less well-known is that Thomas took with him a camera, and photographed much of what he saw, noting the locations on the back of the prints. These have been kept in archives for many years and will now be published for the very first time in the book. Thomas journeys through Guildford, Winchester, Salisbury, across the Plain, to the Bristol Channel, recording a poet’s thoughts and feelings as winter ends.
[UK:] Little Toller Books | 228 pages | introduced by Alexandra Harris
Spring Torrents by Ivan Turgenev (1870-1)
Returning to Russia from a tour in Italy, twenty-three-year-old Dimitry Sanin breaks his journey in Frankfurt. There he encounters the beautiful Gemma Roselli, who works in her parents’ patisserie, and falls deeply and deliriously in love for the first time. Convinced that nothing can come in the way of everlasting happiness with his fiancée, Dimitry impetuously decides to begin a new life and sell his Russian estates. But when he meets the potential buyer, the intriguing Madame Polozov, his youthful vulnerability makes him prey for a darker, destructive infatuation.
[UK / US:] Penguin Classics | 240 pages | translated by Leonard Schapiro
Uncle Fred in Springtime by P. G. Wodehouse (1939)
Uncle Fred is one of the hottest earls who ever donned a coronet. Or as he crisply puts it, ‘There are no limits, literally none, to what I can achieve in the springtime.’ Even so, his gifts are stretched to the limit when he is urged by Lord Emsworth to save his prize pig, the Empress of Blandings, from the enforced slimming cure of the haughty Duke of Dunstable. Pongo Twistleton knows his debonair but wild uncle shouldn't really be allowed at large - especially when disguised as a brain surgeon. He fears the worst. And in yet another brilliant novel by the master of English comedy, Pongo will soon find his fears are amply justified.
[UK:] Cornerstone | 288 pages
[US:] W. W. Norton | 240 pages
What other spring classics would you recommend? Let me know in a comment below.
The book descriptions above are taken from the publishers’ online blurbs.
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I so loved The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim when I read it last year! Such a perfect book for spring. 😊📚
What a wonderful selection of Spring books, am inspired to sit outside and read.