Awakening to Life

For several decades in the first half of the 20th Century, a sub-genre of romantic fiction perhaps best described as "enlightenment through travel" flourished in both American and British narrative, both literary and dramatic such as books and films or plays. The essential action of such narratives saw a character or characters, unfulfilled and repressed by life due to both personal and societal circumstances, traveling to a foreign land (often Italy) and there experiencing a kind of rebirth, manifesting in emotional and in many cases sexual freedom. Aside from "The Enchanted April," other well known examples of this genre include E.M. Forster's "A Room with a View" and the film "Summertime", which starred Katharine Hepburn and which itself was based on a popular play, "The Time of the Cuckoo" by Arthur Laurents.

The essential value of these narratives, aside from providing a degree of romantic...