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Between the Flowers
Between the Flowers is Harriette Simpson Arnow's second novel. Written in the late 1930s, but unpublished until 1997, this early work shows the development of social and cultural themes that would continue in Arnow's later the appeal of wandering and of modern life, the countervailing desire to stay within a traditional community, and the difficulties of communication between men and women in such a community.
Between the Flowers goes far beyond categories of "local color," literary regionalism, or the agrarian novel, to the heart of human relationships in a modernized world. Arnow, who went on to write Hunter's Horn (1949) and The Dollmaker (1952)―her two most famous works―has continually been overlooked by critics as a regional writer. Ironically, it is her stinging realism that is seen as evidence of her realism, evidence that she is of the Cumberland―an area somehow more "regional" than others.
Beginning with an edition of critical essays on her work in 1991 and a complete original edition of Hunter's Horn in 1997, the Michigan State University Press is pleased to continue its effort to make available the timeless insight of Arnow's work with the posthumous publication of Between the Flowers.
Between the Flowers goes far beyond categories of "local color," literary regionalism, or the agrarian novel, to the heart of human relationships in a modernized world. Arnow, who went on to write Hunter's Horn (1949) and The Dollmaker (1952)―her two most famous works―has continually been overlooked by critics as a regional writer. Ironically, it is her stinging realism that is seen as evidence of her realism, evidence that she is of the Cumberland―an area somehow more "regional" than others.
Beginning with an edition of critical essays on her work in 1991 and a complete original edition of Hunter's Horn in 1997, the Michigan State University Press is pleased to continue its effort to make available the timeless insight of Arnow's work with the posthumous publication of Between the Flowers.
426 pages, Paperback
First published November 30, 1999
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About the author
Harriette Simpson Arnow
20 books87 followersHarriette Simpson Arnow (July 7, 1908 – March 22, 1986) was an American novelist, who lived in Kentucky and Michigan.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 24, 2026
Written in the late 1930s, Between the Flowers was Harriette Simpson Arnow’s second novel. It remained unpublished until after her death in 1986. At the time it was considered too ‘regional’ by various editors in New York. After her death the manuscript ended up with The Michigan State University Press, where Frederic J Svoboda recommended it’s publication.
Set in rural Kentucky, the story follows Delph Costello, a headstrong girl with ambitions of moving to a big city and exploring the world. As her Uncle observes,
She's got a mind like an April wind.
Delph is wooed by Marsh Gregory, an oil worker who was born up in th' Bluegrass. Despite being considered an outsider and treated with suspicion from both Delph’s family and the community, he marries her and they start life together on a farm. And what unfurls is a troubled but committed marriage. While Marsh labours with the land and the elements, Delph dreams of an education and the opportunities of travel that will follow. Her isolation within the marriage and the lack of communication between husband and wife are central to the story.
As always when reading Arnow, the character development is fantastic. A little bit like Wendell Berry, you get to know the characters so well they feel like your friends. I think of all her novels, this is the most beautifully written. The cultural and social issues of the time are at the heart of the book, where the pull of modern life from the traditional community is the source of tension. Another source of tension is the appearance of Sam, who had achieved what Delph always wanted, an education followed by a job in a big city. Sam’s mother lives on the farm next to Marsh and Delph’s and it’s his return that furthers the gulf in their marriage.
There was in Sam a streak of nonconformity that made it seem sometimes as if that silly, wishful side of her had overflowed and touched someone else — and that someone else was a man she had heard of since she was a little girl and had dreamed sometimes of knowing and when she did meet him it was as if she had known him always.
It’s clear that growing up in the mountains of Kentucky helped Arnow shape this novel. The storytelling is compelling and realistic, with a host of colourful characters, a biblical flood, a murder and a truly shocking end. Ultimately, it’s a novel about female entrapment, written at a time when it was never discussed. So, thank you Frederic J Svoboda for getting this book published and thank you to my wonderful friend Lori for reading it with me. Her insights and enthusiasm were a joy to behold. Here's her outstanding review, please read it:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Between the Flowers deserves to more well read because it’s a powerfully good book, up there with all the great Appalachian novels.
Set in rural Kentucky, the story follows Delph Costello, a headstrong girl with ambitions of moving to a big city and exploring the world. As her Uncle observes,
She's got a mind like an April wind.
Delph is wooed by Marsh Gregory, an oil worker who was born up in th' Bluegrass. Despite being considered an outsider and treated with suspicion from both Delph’s family and the community, he marries her and they start life together on a farm. And what unfurls is a troubled but committed marriage. While Marsh labours with the land and the elements, Delph dreams of an education and the opportunities of travel that will follow. Her isolation within the marriage and the lack of communication between husband and wife are central to the story.
As always when reading Arnow, the character development is fantastic. A little bit like Wendell Berry, you get to know the characters so well they feel like your friends. I think of all her novels, this is the most beautifully written. The cultural and social issues of the time are at the heart of the book, where the pull of modern life from the traditional community is the source of tension. Another source of tension is the appearance of Sam, who had achieved what Delph always wanted, an education followed by a job in a big city. Sam’s mother lives on the farm next to Marsh and Delph’s and it’s his return that furthers the gulf in their marriage.
There was in Sam a streak of nonconformity that made it seem sometimes as if that silly, wishful side of her had overflowed and touched someone else — and that someone else was a man she had heard of since she was a little girl and had dreamed sometimes of knowing and when she did meet him it was as if she had known him always.
It’s clear that growing up in the mountains of Kentucky helped Arnow shape this novel. The storytelling is compelling and realistic, with a host of colourful characters, a biblical flood, a murder and a truly shocking end. Ultimately, it’s a novel about female entrapment, written at a time when it was never discussed. So, thank you Frederic J Svoboda for getting this book published and thank you to my wonderful friend Lori for reading it with me. Her insights and enthusiasm were a joy to behold. Here's her outstanding review, please read it:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Between the Flowers deserves to more well read because it’s a powerfully good book, up there with all the great Appalachian novels.
January 23, 2026
I am privileged to be able to start the new year out with a buddy read of a book from one of my favorite Kentucky authors. Thanks to Dave’s love of this author and all things southern, we have completed a fourth book that adds to Harriette Simpson Arnow’s Kentucky trilogy of books: “Mountain Path” (1936), “Hunter’s Horn” (1949) and “The Dollmaker”(1954). All three are brilliant in their own ways and all three demonstrate Arnow’s deep and desperate love for the Kentucky land she loved. “Between the Flowers” was never considered a part of these because it was not published until 1999. Arnow passed away in 1986 and never saw this book published.
“Between the Flowers” was her second book, written in the 1930s. For more than 3 years Arnow sought a publisher and failed due to editor’s opposing her subject matter and the way she depicted farm life. The late 1930s were just not a very good time, her editor explained in a letter, with the war and for novels by little known authors.
Arnow is still considered a little known, regional author today despite her 5 decades of writing. Her depth of characterization is one of her triumphs in all of her works. Authors today who write historical fiction just don’t match up with her.
Arnow’s ability to let her stories unfold while including such beautiful and rich details of the place she’s writing about is next to none.
Here on the high knoll, nothing hemmed the sky or rose against it; the hills and nearer trees were dark puny things against the high blue-green roof that, like some great crystal, held still the last brightness of the sun. She looked up into it and felt a moment’s understanding of the bigness and the wonder of the world. It was there while she wasted her days on a hill in the back country, where the seasons and the weather marked the difference in the days, and living men clung to the old ways of their dead; a place where small things made a life, and mere nothings like the coming of the hard frost and cutting of her flowers seemed tragedies.
This paragraph describes Delph Costello and highlights what she most wants in life: more of the world, and education and to see outside of the only place she’s ever known. She meets and falls in love with an oilman, Marsh Gregory, and is also smitten by the prospect of him being able to take her away to see the world. Marsh is an outsider in the back country, despite being born in Kentucky, because Marsh does not work the land like everyone else. Eventually these two elope and their path of marriage becomes a troubled one. Marsh finds his way in working a farm and perseveres almost to the detriment of his marriage. He and Delph are on two different planes. Her independence and desire for more and his inability to talk to her (and she to him) about his own plans and dreams further the gulf between them.
He looked up into her sad rebellious eyes and wondered wearily why it was that when he was most certain of her love, he was least certain of her mind.
Wendell Berry describes this in his poem “The Country of Marriage.” It’s a beautiful poem that tells of that psychological place where couples live on uneven ground. Delph and Marsh live here in this place and it’s so heartbreaking because you know that if they would just communicate, they could be happy.
she was worth all the hurt, and fear, and patience, and anger any man would have to wade through before he found the Delph she was meant to be.
Arnow fills this book with phenomenal details of life in this time and place and gives her readers an engrossing tale of an isolated and lonely marriage. Along with that we are privileged to encounter the mindset and spirit of this rural community through some wonderfully crafted characters.
Many thanks once again to Dave for the brilliant discussion which makes reading together so much better. Here is a link to his fantastic review.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
“Between the Flowers” was her second book, written in the 1930s. For more than 3 years Arnow sought a publisher and failed due to editor’s opposing her subject matter and the way she depicted farm life. The late 1930s were just not a very good time, her editor explained in a letter, with the war and for novels by little known authors.
Arnow is still considered a little known, regional author today despite her 5 decades of writing. Her depth of characterization is one of her triumphs in all of her works. Authors today who write historical fiction just don’t match up with her.
Arnow’s ability to let her stories unfold while including such beautiful and rich details of the place she’s writing about is next to none.
Here on the high knoll, nothing hemmed the sky or rose against it; the hills and nearer trees were dark puny things against the high blue-green roof that, like some great crystal, held still the last brightness of the sun. She looked up into it and felt a moment’s understanding of the bigness and the wonder of the world. It was there while she wasted her days on a hill in the back country, where the seasons and the weather marked the difference in the days, and living men clung to the old ways of their dead; a place where small things made a life, and mere nothings like the coming of the hard frost and cutting of her flowers seemed tragedies.
This paragraph describes Delph Costello and highlights what she most wants in life: more of the world, and education and to see outside of the only place she’s ever known. She meets and falls in love with an oilman, Marsh Gregory, and is also smitten by the prospect of him being able to take her away to see the world. Marsh is an outsider in the back country, despite being born in Kentucky, because Marsh does not work the land like everyone else. Eventually these two elope and their path of marriage becomes a troubled one. Marsh finds his way in working a farm and perseveres almost to the detriment of his marriage. He and Delph are on two different planes. Her independence and desire for more and his inability to talk to her (and she to him) about his own plans and dreams further the gulf between them.
He looked up into her sad rebellious eyes and wondered wearily why it was that when he was most certain of her love, he was least certain of her mind.
Wendell Berry describes this in his poem “The Country of Marriage.” It’s a beautiful poem that tells of that psychological place where couples live on uneven ground. Delph and Marsh live here in this place and it’s so heartbreaking because you know that if they would just communicate, they could be happy.
she was worth all the hurt, and fear, and patience, and anger any man would have to wade through before he found the Delph she was meant to be.
Arnow fills this book with phenomenal details of life in this time and place and gives her readers an engrossing tale of an isolated and lonely marriage. Along with that we are privileged to encounter the mindset and spirit of this rural community through some wonderfully crafted characters.
Many thanks once again to Dave for the brilliant discussion which makes reading together so much better. Here is a link to his fantastic review.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
February 26, 2012
harriet arnow's book pretty much always make me cry. her writing is so so beautiful, but then there is always the tragedy of life. I kept wishing that maybe this time she decided to let everything work out nicely. sigh.
September 28, 2009
Amazing..............her usual wonderful writing! I love Ms Simpson Arnow's books.........there just aren't enough of them!
Everyone should read at least one............
Everyone should read at least one............
October 10, 2011
a fantastic saga of hill billy world changing over to the modern world, with a young couple who elope and go out away from the hills to try and make it in the "real" world. only thing is, hubby has the great idea to be a farmer, while wifey thought they were going to the bright lights, anywhere, anywhere else but Kentucky. Author Arnow is the very real thing, in style and substance with Thomas Hardy, Faulkner, or any other superior novelist.
October 4, 2010
If Ms. Arnow writes it, I will read it.
July 1, 2022
Beautifully written, and very sad.
November 18, 2012
I was rather disappointed with this book. I had hoped it would be written in the tradition of the other books by Harriette Arnow that I've read. I had a hard time understanding Delph's character and why she did things the way she did.
November 19, 2012
Great followup of the book about the Cumberlands I just read. Knowing the history beforehand made it come alive for me.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews