Books like “The Enchanted April”

What to read after “The Enchanted April” by Elizabeth von Arnim: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
Cold Comfort Farm
Stella Gibbons · 1932
Similar atmosphere: “Comfort Read” and “Whimsical”
- Comfort Read
- Whimsical
Practical Flora Poste, newly orphaned, moves in with her gloomy rural relatives at Cold Comfort Farm. Armed with common sense and a strong will, she sets about tidying their tangled lives, one absurd cousin at a time, in a comic send-up of romantic country novels.
2
I Capture the Castle
Dodie Smith · 1948
Similar atmosphere: “Comfort Read” and “Whimsical”
- Comfort Read
- Whimsical
Seventeen-year-old Cassandra Mortmain writes her diary in a crumbling English castle where her family lives on almost nothing. When two wealthy American brothers arrive to claim the estate, love and money unsettle the household, and Cassandra grows up fast.
3
The Wind in the Willows
Kenneth Grahame · 1908
Similar atmosphere: “Comfort Read” and “Whimsical”
- Comfort Read
- Whimsical
Mole leaves his underground home for the riverbank, where Rat, Badger and the reckless Mr. Toad become his friends. Their quiet days of boating and picnics are broken when Toad's craze for motorcars lands him in real trouble, and the four of them must set things right.
4
Anne of Green Gables
L. M. Montgomery · 1908
Similar atmosphere: “Comfort Read” and “Whimsical”
- Comfort Read
- Whimsical
Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert mean to adopt a boy to help on their farm, but the orphan who arrives is Anne Shirley, a talkative red-haired girl with a vivid imagination. Over years of scrapes and small triumphs she wins over the village of Avonlea and finds a place she can finally call home.
5
Little Women
Louisa May Alcott · 1868
Similar atmosphere: “Comfort Read”
- Comfort Read
Four sisters grow up in a modest New England home while their father is away at war. They argue, make art, fall in love and learn to support one another through loss and change. A warm coming-of-age story about family, ambition and becoming yourself.
6
A Man Called Ove
Fredrik Backman · 2012
Similar atmosphere: “Comfort Read”
- Comfort Read
Ove is a grumpy widower who has decided there is nothing left for him, until a noisy young family moves in next door and keeps interrupting his plans. Piece by piece, the neighbourhood draws him back into a life he thought was over.
7
The Secret Garden
Frances Hodgson Burnett · 1911
Similar atmosphere: “Comfort Read”
- Comfort Read
Orphaned and sent to a gloomy Yorkshire house, Mary Lennox finds little to like until a robin leads her to a walled garden locked for years. With a local boy and her sickly cousin she brings the garden back to life, and the sadness buried in the house begins slowly to lift.
8
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Lewis Carroll · 1865
Similar atmosphere: “Whimsical”
- Whimsical
Alice follows a hurried white rabbit down a hole and lands in a world where cakes and drinks change her size and nothing follows ordinary rules. She meets the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter and a short-tempered Queen.
9
The Kamogawa Food Detectives
Hisashi Kashiwai · 2013
Similar atmosphere: “Comfort Read” and “Whimsical”
- Comfort Read
- Whimsical
At a small Kyoto diner, Nagare Kamogawa and his daughter quietly work as food detectives. Clients describe a dish they cannot forget, and the pair trace its ingredients and the people tied to it, recovering memories, old losses and small reconciliations along the way.
10
The Princess Bride
William Goldman · 1973
Similar atmosphere: “Comfort Read” and “Whimsical”
- Comfort Read
- Whimsical
Buttercup and farm boy Westley are parted when he sails away to make his fortune and is reported killed by pirates, and she is promised to a prince she does not love. A swordsman, a giant and a scheming noble chase the pair across a kingdom of pirates and wonders, in a tongue-in-cheek fairy tale of true love.
11
Remarkably Bright Creatures
Shelby Van Pelt · 2022
Similar atmosphere: “Comfort Read”
- Comfort Read
Tova Sullivan cleans the local aquarium at night and talks to Marcellus, a clever giant Pacific octopus. When Marcellus works out the answer to a loss that has haunted her for years, a drifting young man arrives in town, and three quiet lives slowly knit together.
12
The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald · 1925
Similar plot moves: “Second Chance Romance”
- Second Chance Romance
Long Island, the 1920s. Nick Carraway becomes neighbour to the wealthy, secretive Jay Gatsby, who throws lavish parties for a single purpose: to win back Nick's cousin Daisy, married to the brutish Tom Buchanan.