Elizabeth von Arnim
The Enchanted April: what to read next?
Books close in genre, era, author or reading level, to read in bilingual editions.
L. M. MontgomeryThe Blue CastleValancy, a young woman stifled by an authoritarian family and a monotonous life, learns she may be seriously ill. This news acts as a trigger: she decides to finally live by her own rules. She breaks away from conventions and meets Barney, a marginal and free-spirited man who…Same genreSame era
Frances BurnettThe Secret GardenMary, a solitary and spoiled child, is sent to live in a large isolated estate after a family tragedy. There she discovers an abandoned garden, locked for years, which gradually becomes a refuge and a place of transformation. By exploring this secret space, she changes…Same genreSame era
Maria DaviessBluegrass and BroadwayIn Kentucky, young Patricia Adair must save Rosemeade, the family home where her grandfather lives. She writes a play drawn from her great-grandmother’s love letters. In New York, the producer Godfrey Vandeford buys it without reading it: he wants it to fail, to teach his star…Same genreSame era
Marah RyanThat Girl MontanaA novel of the American West. Around 1890, on the banks of the Kootenai River, near the border between Canada and the United States, a sixteen-year-old girl who lives alone among the Native Americans dives into the icy water to save a child. Dan Overton, a guide respected…Same genreSame era
L. M. MontgomeryAnne of Green GablesAnne Shirley, a lively and imaginative orphan, is mistakenly sent to Marilla and Matthew, a brother and sister who were expecting a boy to help on the farm. Despite her blunders and passionate temperament, Anne gradually wins their hearts and those of the people around her.…Same genreSame era
Alice RiceBilly Goat HillAn American novel. In Kentucky, early in the twentieth century, the old Thornwood mansion stands on Billy-goat Hill, a hill that the nearby city is slowly taking over. Colonel Bob Carsey lives there with his daughter, nicknamed Miss Lady, a free and joyful girl who has educated…Same genreSame era
Mark TwainThe Prince and the PauperTom Canty, a poor child living in misery, accidentally meets Prince Edward, who looks strikingly like him. For fun, they exchange roles but become trapped in lives that are not their own. Tom discovers the constraints of power, while Edward faces the harshness of the streets.…Same genre
H. De Vere StacpooleThe Blue LagoonIn the nineteenth century, on the Pacific Ocean, the sailing ship carrying two eight-year-old cousins, Dick and Emmeline, towards San Francisco catches fire at sea. The children escape in a small boat with Paddy Button, an old Irish sailor, and the fog separates them from the…Same genreSame era
Alfred OllivantOne WomanAn English novel, the second part of “a Romance of Sussex”. In 1908, in a seaside town in the south of England, Ruth, a former housemaid, marries Ernie Caspar, a working man who raises little Alice, born before their marriage, as his own daughter. The years pass: more children…Same countrySame genreSame era
Harold MacGrathThe Place of HoneymoonsAn American romantic novel. Edward Courtlandt, a wealthy American, returns to Paris after two years in the jungles of Burma to see Nora Harrigan again, an Irish-American soprano who sings at the Opera under the name Eleonora da Toscana. When he forces his way into her…Same genreSame era
C. N. and A. M. WilliamsonThe Heather MoonAn English novel. Barrie MacDonald is eighteen and is growing up near Carlisle, close to Scotland, with a stern grandmother who hates the theatre and has let her believe that her mother was dead. When she learns that this mother, an actress, is very much alive, Barrie runs away…Same countrySame genreSame era
Arthur StringerThe Prairie WifeA novel by the Canadian writer Arthur Stringer, published in 1915 and written in the form of a diary. A young woman from New York high society, suddenly ruined, marries almost without thinking Duncan McKail, a Canadian of Scottish descent, a former engineer who now grows wheat…Same genreSame era