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16th out of 38 books
—
18 voters
The Apple: New Crimson Petal Stories
by
Michel Faber
"New Crimson Petal Stories". In this collection, Michael Faber revisits the world of his bestselling novel, "The Crimson Petal & White", briefly opening doors onto the lives of its characters to give us tantalising glimpses of where they sprang from and what happened to them
Paperback, 199 pages
Published
September 7th 2006
by Canongate Books Ltd
(first published 2004)
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May 18, 2013
Cecily
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
short-stories,
historical-fiction-set-pre-20c
Despite the 2*, this is not exactly a bad book, merely opportunistic, frustrating and hugely disappointing after the wonderfully rich novel which it relates to, The Crimson Petal and the White (http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...), “TCP”.
There’s little point reading this collection unless you have read TCP, but huge disappointment if you have. I really wouldn’t advise anyone to read it.
Where TCP was a luxuriously long, deep novel, this is half a dozen very short stories, jumping on that ba...more
There’s little point reading this collection unless you have read TCP, but huge disappointment if you have. I really wouldn’t advise anyone to read it.
Where TCP was a luxuriously long, deep novel, this is half a dozen very short stories, jumping on that ba...more
The back of my book states that Faber is a "master" of no less than two items - "his subject" AND "the short story form". Glowing praise but I was unsure that such a slim volume could stand up to it. However, I'd loved the first book so gave this a go.
Quite a number of writers have seemed to want to delve further into fictional worlds and characters they have already created recently. For example, Susannah Clarke and "The Ladies of Grace Adieu" and this collection. This is basically a return to...more
Quite a number of writers have seemed to want to delve further into fictional worlds and characters they have already created recently. For example, Susannah Clarke and "The Ladies of Grace Adieu" and this collection. This is basically a return to...more
Ok folks, first things first. If you haven’t read The Crimson Petal and The White, then please don’t read this collection of short stories. It is worthless. Thankfully, Amazon will give you a discount on a group purchase.
Secondly, following the bestseller success of The Crimson Petal, Cannongate have made the commercial decision to let Faber treat us to some literary nuggets and allow us back into the lives of the central characters from the first book with glimpses into both the past and the fu...more
Secondly, following the bestseller success of The Crimson Petal, Cannongate have made the commercial decision to let Faber treat us to some literary nuggets and allow us back into the lives of the central characters from the first book with glimpses into both the past and the fu...more
I enjoyed reading some of the stories. It has been a few years since I read the Crimson Petal and the White, and it was fun to recognize names. I matched a few characters up to the wrong names and forgot some characters entirely, but none of that affected my understanding of the stories. Had it not been for one particular quote that I really, really liked, I could have gone without reading this collection. In my mind, I knew how Sugar would turn out. The ending of The Crimson Petal and the White...more
3 likes · like · see review
It's been a while since I read the Crimson Petal and the White, and although I didn't realise I was missing the characters, when I spotted this book available for the Kindle, I got quite excited. It's very short, just a few short stories featuring some of the characters from the main book.
In particular, it was fun to see what happened to Clara, and how difficult William Rackham finds life post-Sugar. The stories about Sugar herself appeared to take place before any of the action of the novel, so...more
In particular, it was fun to see what happened to Clara, and how difficult William Rackham finds life post-Sugar. The stories about Sugar herself appeared to take place before any of the action of the novel, so...more
The Apple is a collection of new crimson petal stories that would appeal to readers who have enjoyed Faber’s Victorian epic, The Crimson Petal and the White. I was glad to be once again in the company of Sugar (intellectual whore turned governess) Sophie (Perfumer William Rackham’s little girl abducted by her governess), Clara (the maid who’d been dismissed from the Rackham household), Dr Curlew (the Rackham family physician) and his horse-face daughter (Emmeline Fox who survived consumption), B...more
This collection of stories offers another glimpse of the much-loved characters of Faber's Victorian novel The Crimson Petal and the White.
In that novel, the fates of main character Sugar and her charge Sophie were inconclusive and many fans of the novel hoped for a sequel. However, Faber ruled out that possibility, perhaps in an effort to preserve the definitive status of that sprawling novel.
The Sugar that appears in two of the stories in this collection, including the titular story, is still...more
In that novel, the fates of main character Sugar and her charge Sophie were inconclusive and many fans of the novel hoped for a sequel. However, Faber ruled out that possibility, perhaps in an effort to preserve the definitive status of that sprawling novel.
The Sugar that appears in two of the stories in this collection, including the titular story, is still...more
"I do understand how maddening it is to only get so far, and not know what happened next. I wouldn't do that to you!"
So writes a character in one of the short stories that add to the reader's understanding of Michel Faber's earlier book, "The Crimson Petal and the White".
Well, yes, Mr Faber. It IS maddening. I don't know a single person who felt satisfied when they reached the end of "Crimson Petal". We all want to know what happened next. What REALLY happened to Agnes? Where did Sugar and Sophi...more
So writes a character in one of the short stories that add to the reader's understanding of Michel Faber's earlier book, "The Crimson Petal and the White".
Well, yes, Mr Faber. It IS maddening. I don't know a single person who felt satisfied when they reached the end of "Crimson Petal". We all want to know what happened next. What REALLY happened to Agnes? Where did Sugar and Sophi...more
Short stories about the characters from The Crimson Petal and the White, some which take place prior to the events of that book, and some after. We shall take the high quality of Faber's writing as a given, and beyond that, I had a mixed reaction. I was a little more intrigued with the stories of things that happened before, for the most part. Finding out, even remotely, what happened after made things feel too pat. And a lot of the happenings are things you might have guessed anyway, so it wasn...more
These short stories were very interesting. After finishing "The Crimson Petal and the White," I wanted more about Sophie and Sugar and William. Suffice to say I just wanted more. Faber has said countless times that he will not write a sequel and that seems to be his final decision. In the introduction, he gives some very logical reasons and I finally see from his point of view.
I was surprised by how many different characters were featured in these stores. We see Sugar twice I believe, Clara, an...more
I was surprised by how many different characters were featured in these stores. We see Sugar twice I believe, Clara, an...more
Michael Faber’s Crimson Petal and the White brought the sordid side of Victorian London to life so vividly that you could smell the dirt, and much worse, encrusting the artfully layered lives of its characters. These seven short stories attempt to fill in the fates of several disparate characters, with a timescale sliding between past and future events in their lives.
You may have to search your memory for some of the more minor characters featured here, especially if it’s been a while since rea...more
You may have to search your memory for some of the more minor characters featured here, especially if it’s been a while since rea...more
Beautifully written short stories which tell of seemingly random events that happen to some of the characters from The Crimson Petal and The White - after, during and before the timescale of the novel itself.
Some stories are sweet, some intensely disturbing. They draw on themes directly alluded to in the novel as well as wider historical events. And although Michel Faber stresses in the forward that he will not give away what happened to Sugar and Sophie over the next twenty plus years - the fin...more
Some stories are sweet, some intensely disturbing. They draw on themes directly alluded to in the novel as well as wider historical events. And although Michel Faber stresses in the forward that he will not give away what happened to Sugar and Sophie over the next twenty plus years - the fin...more
It being ages since I read The Crimson Petal and the White I couldn't remember much about the characters from it, so I'm pleased to report that, as the author attests in his introduction, one doesn't need to have read the parent novel to enjoy these short stories. The opening one was very Dickens Christmas stories and the next rather weird and it went on from there. My favourite line was from the final story about suffrage: ...men ought to be gainfully employed, but (that) ladies should not be p...more
If I hadn't been so busy, I could have sat down and finished this book in under 2 hours.
It's short, at under 200 pages, and each story is an extremely fast read. At first I had trouble racking my brain to recall certain details of The Crimson Petal and the White, in order to make these stories fit into that timeline, but within a few minutes of each story I found myself making it make sense.
If you're looking for this book to solve all the unanswered questions at the end of The Crimson Petal and...more
It's short, at under 200 pages, and each story is an extremely fast read. At first I had trouble racking my brain to recall certain details of The Crimson Petal and the White, in order to make these stories fit into that timeline, but within a few minutes of each story I found myself making it make sense.
If you're looking for this book to solve all the unanswered questions at the end of The Crimson Petal and...more
If you've read The Crimson Petal....this is a "Must Read"! Michel Faber goes some way to explain his reasons for the ending of The Crimson Petal in the foreword and shares some of the indignant emails and letters that he received from readers. However, he doesn't apologise for this, but leaves the reader with further mysteries to solve.
It doesn't pretend to answer all the questions that The Crimson Petal leaves the reader with, but takes you deeper and further into some of the characters. I love...more
It doesn't pretend to answer all the questions that The Crimson Petal leaves the reader with, but takes you deeper and further into some of the characters. I love...more
An utterly charming collection of stories. If anyone has sit and read the the addicting, Crimson Petal and the White, and you wanted to know what happened to everyone (well most of them) then this is where you need to look. It has Faber's tell-tale signs in the way he talks about sex, and London's seedy underbelly in the very prudish Victorian times. We get to revisit Clara, and William Rackham. As well an early tale from Emmeline. My favourite, and I would wager a lot of peoples' favourites is...more
If you haven’t read ‘The Crimson Petal and the White’, don’t read any further because there will be spoilers for that particular book.
This book is essentially a companion for ‘The Crimson Petal and the White.’ I found it easy to read although it is my view very few of the stories had much substance, and relied on the reader having knowledge of the characters from reading ‘The Crimson Petal and the White’. The exception to this is ‘Clara and the Rat Man’ which I consider to be a really good short...more
This book is essentially a companion for ‘The Crimson Petal and the White.’ I found it easy to read although it is my view very few of the stories had much substance, and relied on the reader having knowledge of the characters from reading ‘The Crimson Petal and the White’. The exception to this is ‘Clara and the Rat Man’ which I consider to be a really good short...more
Finally!
Some closure after reading "The Crimson Petal and the White". It seems like a gift, also, after 800-something-odd pages of getting to know these characters it is like getting to catch up with them after a long absence.
I do not usually like short stories, but I love that Faber wrote this. It is an insight into the characters and a little more into what made them tick before we met them in the "The Crimson Petal..." and a little of what happened to them after. Though it does not spell it o...more
Some closure after reading "The Crimson Petal and the White". It seems like a gift, also, after 800-something-odd pages of getting to know these characters it is like getting to catch up with them after a long absence.
I do not usually like short stories, but I love that Faber wrote this. It is an insight into the characters and a little more into what made them tick before we met them in the "The Crimson Petal..." and a little of what happened to them after. Though it does not spell it o...more
Chosen because my interest in the Crimson Petal and the White was reignited by the recent TV adaption.
This is a simple selection of (very) short stories based around the characters from the original book - sometimes telling the back story, sometimes telling future generations.
Its of the same quirky style as the original, with is anachronistic tales of victoriania.
Its a bit like the DVD extras that you get on a series DVD. Not strong enough to stand up on its own - too good to through away.
A qui...more
This is a simple selection of (very) short stories based around the characters from the original book - sometimes telling the back story, sometimes telling future generations.
Its of the same quirky style as the original, with is anachronistic tales of victoriania.
Its a bit like the DVD extras that you get on a series DVD. Not strong enough to stand up on its own - too good to through away.
A qui...more
Loved Crimson Petal and loved this book of short stories just as much or perhaps even a little bit more for providing me with a small fix on the characters i was missing since finishing off Crimson Petal. You certainly get hooked on them and have a feeling of needing to find out a bit more.
I enjoyed reading about the characters before the setting of Crimson Petal and got some answers later on when I met Clara, Willian Rackham, Sophie and Aunt Primrose again!
Yes it is true...so many of the revie...more
I enjoyed reading about the characters before the setting of Crimson Petal and got some answers later on when I met Clara, Willian Rackham, Sophie and Aunt Primrose again!
Yes it is true...so many of the revie...more
Pretty much ditto what Darla said. Very much enjoyed entering back into Sugar's world and at least seeing glimpses of what happened to certain characters. Despite what Faber says in the foreward, I DO think you need to have read Crimson Petal first. Otherwise, there will be a lot of moments that won't be very meaningful. Definitely enjoyed this more than his other, non-Crimson Petal books that I've attempted.
And, yup, read it in two days, extraordinary for me right now. But then I'm in a hurry t...more
And, yup, read it in two days, extraordinary for me right now. But then I'm in a hurry t...more
After reading The Crimson Petal & feeling utterly bereft when I'd finished, I couldn't wait to read this...I was so disappointed though! I note other reviewers have been left disappointed because we don't find out what happened to Sugar, although for me her chapter was one of the better ones so that wasn't my problem with this book. I felt Michel Faber was trying to be sensationalist & it wasn't at all necessary - I also didn't like the foreword where he printed letters of people begging...more
Was good to return to the world of "The Crimson Petal and the White" but was only occasionally as gloriously enchanting as the first half of that book. It's like I went to a party and really hit it off with this fantastic person and spontaneously invited them to dinner, kept talking but as the night wore on I started to feel my interest waning. Then, when they came over to dinner and we spoke, it became apparently that they were of that category of person who is bright and entrancing only for th...more
In contrast with The Crimson Petal and the White, this is a very short read. However, I found it well worth reading because it tied up some of the loose ends from Faber's magnum opus. I found myself nodding with satisfaction often while reading this short book, and outright giggling with glee at the title of the last short story of the collection: "A Mighty Horde of Women in Very Big Hats, Approaching." The only bad thing I can say about this book is that it was far too short. Book #40 in the Bo...more
This is a slim volume containing 8 short stories in which some of the main characters in The Crimson Petal and The White have their fates revealed. This is for everyone who, like me, finished the original book and thought ‘But what happened next to Sugar, Sophie, William…;’
The Apple doesn’t have all the answers but it does have some as we meet an older Sophie, Clare, her mother’s maid who’s fallen on hard times and become a prostitute, and Miss Sugar appears tantalisingly in the background.
And W...more
The Apple doesn’t have all the answers but it does have some as we meet an older Sophie, Clare, her mother’s maid who’s fallen on hard times and become a prostitute, and Miss Sugar appears tantalisingly in the background.
And W...more
Michel Faber's The Crimson Petal and The White is one of my favourite books (see my review). It's a Victorian-style gothic tale about Sugar, an angry prostitute that manages to rise through society by making a wealthy man fall in love with her. But it's more than that too - it's a panoramic of London in the Victorian times, in all its squalor, filth and inequality. When I closed the book back in December 2010, I wanted more as Faber's style was just so distinctive and captivating. So I was excit...more
Having not read "The Crimson Petal and White" I'm not coming to this familiar with the characters. That said, this is my fourth Michel Faber novel so I know he can write and this book is no exception.
"Christmas in Silver Street" is about a prostitute called Apple who decides to give the son of one of the other prostitutes a decent Christmas dinner.
"Clara and the Rat Man" is about another prostitute called Clara, turned to streetwalking after being dismissed as a housemaid who encounters a stra...more
"Christmas in Silver Street" is about a prostitute called Apple who decides to give the son of one of the other prostitutes a decent Christmas dinner.
"Clara and the Rat Man" is about another prostitute called Clara, turned to streetwalking after being dismissed as a housemaid who encounters a stra...more
It was enjoyable to read more of Faber’s work set in ‘The Crimson’ period. A total of seven stories with four of the stories taking place in the future from ‘The Crimson’, not necessarily containing the characters fans of ‘The Crimson’ probably would have liked, while the other three are set in the past fleshing out characters already known to readers of 'The Crimson'.
I enjoyed some stories more than others, a few were a nice addition to the main story such as ‘The fly and it’s effect upon Mr Bo...more
I enjoyed some stories more than others, a few were a nice addition to the main story such as ‘The fly and it’s effect upon Mr Bo...more
A delightful collection of seven short stories from the world of The Crimson Petal and the White. I had loved that novel so, that when I found out there were more glimpses into the Crimson Petal world, I just had to get it.
The stories here are nothing spectacular and they don't reveal anything major about the characters. With the way the original novel ended, I'm sure people thought these stories would be a nice little wrap-up, as it were. They are not. They are, however, a sort of revisit of ol...more
The stories here are nothing spectacular and they don't reveal anything major about the characters. With the way the original novel ended, I'm sure people thought these stories would be a nice little wrap-up, as it were. They are not. They are, however, a sort of revisit of ol...more
Jul 29, 2008
Martine
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
fans of <i>The Crimson Petal and the White</i>
The Apple is a hard book to rate. On the one hand, I enjoyed the seven stories contained in it for the additional glimpse they provide into the lives of the characters of The Crimson Petal and the White, one of the best novels I've read this year. On the other hand, they don't provide nearly enough glimpses for my liking, and I doubt they'll appeal much to people who haven't read The Crimson Petal. So. Yeah. Conundrum!
Three of the stories in The Apple are set before the events of The Crimson Pet...more
Three of the stories in The Apple are set before the events of The Crimson Pet...more
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Michel Faber (born 13 April 1960) is a Dutch writer of fiction. He writes in English.
Faber was born in The Hague, The Netherlands. He and his parents emigrated to Australia in 1967. He attended primary and secondary school in the Melbourne suburbs of Boronia and Bayswater, then attended the University Of Melbourne, studying Dutch, Philosophy, Rhetoric, English Language (a course involving translat...more
More about Michel Faber...
Faber was born in The Hague, The Netherlands. He and his parents emigrated to Australia in 1967. He attended primary and secondary school in the Melbourne suburbs of Boronia and Bayswater, then attended the University Of Melbourne, studying Dutch, Philosophy, Rhetoric, English Language (a course involving translat...more
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May 21, 2013 10:45am
Just don't let this review put you off Faber in general. As I said at the end, his collection of standalone short sto...more
21 hours, 10 min ago