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The Apple: New Crimson Petal Stories
Enjoy more Sugar. Join Clara at the rat pit. Relax with Mr Bodley as he is lulled to sleep by Mrs Tremain and her girls. Find out what became of Sophie.
Michel Faber revisits the world of his bestselling novel The Crimson Petal and the White, conjuring tantalising glimpses of its characters, their lives before we first met them and their intriguing futures. You'll be desperate for more by the time you reluctantly re-emerge into the twenty-first century.
Michel Faber revisits the world of his bestselling novel The Crimson Petal and the White, conjuring tantalising glimpses of its characters, their lives before we first met them and their intriguing futures. You'll be desperate for more by the time you reluctantly re-emerge into the twenty-first century.
199 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2002
About the author
Michel Faber
60 books1,997 followersMichel Faber (born 13 April 1960) is a Dutch writer of English-language fiction.
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 translation and criticism of Anglo-Saxon and Middle English texts) and English literature. He graduated in 1980. He worked as a cleaner and at various other casual jobs, before training as a nurse at Marrickville and Western Suburbs hospitals in Sydney. He nursed until the mid-1990s. In 1993 he, his second wife and family emigrated to Scotland, where they still reside.
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 translation and criticism of Anglo-Saxon and Middle English texts) and English literature. He graduated in 1980. He worked as a cleaner and at various other casual jobs, before training as a nurse at Marrickville and Western Suburbs hospitals in Sydney. He nursed until the mid-1990s. In 1993 he, his second wife and family emigrated to Scotland, where they still reside.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 298 reviews
July 20, 2016
In 2003 The Crimson Petal and the White was published to much acclaim. I read it and awarded it five plump wobbly stars. But other readers had other reactions. In his forward to this slender collection of short stories, Mr Faber says that he gets letters from his readers and he keeps them in a box. So that’s surprising right there – who writes to authors? I would never have the nerve. I mean, what would you say to Shakespeare? Dear Bard, I must say that I thought The Tempest was a wonderful note on which to bring down the curtain, as it were, on your illustrious career. You are my favourite Elizabethan playwright. Have a wonderful retirement. Your friend, P Bryant. Dear Brett Easton Ellis, I have now spoken with my lawyers and if you attempt to contact me again or come within 100 yards of myself and my immediate family (note – mother in law not counted as immediate) you will be in breach of the court order and prompt action will be taken. Yours, P Bryant. Anyway, Mr Faber received letters saying “Why do you make me suffer more?” and “I implore you, please please please” and another said “The Crimson Petal is the most frustrating, maddening masterwork that I have ever trudged through in my life…novels are supposed to have satisfying tight endings…” so basically everyone got to the end, all 835 pages, and found there was no ending, it just stopped.
It was like the old refrain : “if you want any more you can sing it yourself”.
It was really a bit rude. 835 pages and no ending?
People really got into this novel. He quotes a note from a gentlemen in Lancashire :
A few days before Christmas I was half awake and the first thought that came to me was what I could obtain as Christmas presents for Miss Sophie, Sugar, and Mrs Fox. Then suddenly I realised who they really were.
Well, Mr Faber relented, kind of, and wrote this collection of stories about the fates of the characters in his giant novel. It does answer most questions, and I thought it was splendid, but I’m pretty much a Faber fanboy.
It was like the old refrain : “if you want any more you can sing it yourself”.
It was really a bit rude. 835 pages and no ending?
People really got into this novel. He quotes a note from a gentlemen in Lancashire :
A few days before Christmas I was half awake and the first thought that came to me was what I could obtain as Christmas presents for Miss Sophie, Sugar, and Mrs Fox. Then suddenly I realised who they really were.
Well, Mr Faber relented, kind of, and wrote this collection of stories about the fates of the characters in his giant novel. It does answer most questions, and I thought it was splendid, but I’m pretty much a Faber fanboy.
October 31, 2023
My fault entirely that I haven't read it right after The Crimson Petal and the White. Maybe then it would be more relatable and wouldn't feel as a letdown of sorts. Don't get me wrong - this is still a lot of splendid writing, it's Faber after all. Hence three stars, not just two. But these stories felt just simply... unnecessary? Avoidable? Yes, it was nice to learn some of 'what happened later' to a couple of the characters, I guess, but the original novel worked perfectly without it, with the great unknown of the ending.
However, if you treat it lightly, just as a cute trinket, not a serious sequel to the novel, you'll be fine reading it.
It's a really quick read, anyway.
However, if you treat it lightly, just as a cute trinket, not a serious sequel to the novel, you'll be fine reading it.
It's a really quick read, anyway.
May 18, 2013
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 bandwagon. In a lengthy Foreword that includes too much fan mail, Faber attempts to justify publishing these stories, but most of them are barely a snapshot, which could work, but really didn’t for me. It even opens with “Close your eyes”, an echo of the familiar “Watch your step”, but that only compounds the impression of a poor pastiche.
The first story illustrates Sugar’s love for Christopher, which perhaps makes her love for Sophie (never quite convincing enough, I thought) more plausible, but it is too mawkish.
The second story tells of a once respectable woman who has become a prostitute (very different form Sugar’s childhood initiation), focusing on a client with an unusual and increasingly unsavoury fetish.
We get a glimpse of the teenage years of Emmeline Fox ( neé Curlew), which is enlightening, but not exactly riveting.
Bodley has an existential moment, which was quite a surprise, but I never found him a very fleshed out or engaging character, and I felt much the same afterwards.
The eponymous story, “The Apple”, is a snippet of Sugar’s time at Mrs Castaway’s. It briefly explores what drove Sugar to attempt her novel and shows her ambitions at the early stage, when she first realised the usefulness of bluffing erudition, but I’m sure I was not the only reader to have surmised most of that already.
We catch up with William, a decade or more after TCP ended, but I preferred the ambiguity at the end of TCP over this, rather weak addition. William’s rewriting of history is perhaps not surprising in a man of his time, but it shows him in an unequivocally nastier light than in TCP: he blames Sugar for his subseqeunt misfortune, entirely overlooking that the only reason he had it was because he built the business first for her, and then with her.
The final story is reminiscences of an old man in the 1990s. It is the most complete story, and there are interesting aspects, but like the others, it takes away some of the mystery, without leaving the reader with anything remotely satisfying in return.
Despite the above, there are a few good thoughts:
• “Snow makes everyone and everything look equal.”
• The “original sin – of being born.”
• The prostitute’s paradox: “She’ll display every detail of her naked body to her customers, but she won’t allow passers by to ogle her outside of working hours.”
• Of Anthony Trollope, “He may be refreshingly unsentimental, but he always pretends he’s on the woman’s side, then lets the men win.”
• “Reading… is an admission of defeat… it shows that you believe other lives are more interesting than yours.”
The good news is that a completely separate collection of short stories, "Some Rain Must Fall", shows that Faber can write wonderful short stories (http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...)
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 bandwagon. In a lengthy Foreword that includes too much fan mail, Faber attempts to justify publishing these stories, but most of them are barely a snapshot, which could work, but really didn’t for me. It even opens with “Close your eyes”, an echo of the familiar “Watch your step”, but that only compounds the impression of a poor pastiche.
The first story illustrates Sugar’s love for Christopher, which perhaps makes her love for Sophie (never quite convincing enough, I thought) more plausible, but it is too mawkish.
The second story tells of a once respectable woman who has become a prostitute (very different form Sugar’s childhood initiation), focusing on a client with an unusual and increasingly unsavoury fetish.
We get a glimpse of the teenage years of Emmeline Fox ( neé Curlew), which is enlightening, but not exactly riveting.
Bodley has an existential moment, which was quite a surprise, but I never found him a very fleshed out or engaging character, and I felt much the same afterwards.
The eponymous story, “The Apple”, is a snippet of Sugar’s time at Mrs Castaway’s. It briefly explores what drove Sugar to attempt her novel and shows her ambitions at the early stage, when she first realised the usefulness of bluffing erudition, but I’m sure I was not the only reader to have surmised most of that already.
We catch up with William, a decade or more after TCP ended, but I preferred the ambiguity at the end of TCP over this, rather weak addition. William’s rewriting of history is perhaps not surprising in a man of his time, but it shows him in an unequivocally nastier light than in TCP: he blames Sugar for his subseqeunt misfortune, entirely overlooking that the only reason he had it was because he built the business first for her, and then with her.
The final story is reminiscences of an old man in the 1990s. It is the most complete story, and there are interesting aspects, but like the others, it takes away some of the mystery, without leaving the reader with anything remotely satisfying in return.
Despite the above, there are a few good thoughts:
• “Snow makes everyone and everything look equal.”
• The “original sin – of being born.”
• The prostitute’s paradox: “She’ll display every detail of her naked body to her customers, but she won’t allow passers by to ogle her outside of working hours.”
• Of Anthony Trollope, “He may be refreshingly unsentimental, but he always pretends he’s on the woman’s side, then lets the men win.”
• “Reading… is an admission of defeat… it shows that you believe other lives are more interesting than yours.”
The good news is that a completely separate collection of short stories, "Some Rain Must Fall", shows that Faber can write wonderful short stories (http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...)
February 6, 2018
En mi edición Faber cuenta que tras la publicación de Pétalo carmesí, flor blanca, no dejaba de recibir cartas de lectores frustrados con su final, o "nofinal", y gente que imploraba uno. Me parece curiosa esa avalancha de peticiones y esa decepción colectiva. Es un final más o menos abierto, como tantos, y algo que a mí en general no me disgusta, mucho menos en una novela como esta, que cuenta vidas más que hechos, ¿cuándo terminarla?
De todas formas, me quedé enganchada a los personajes y sabiendo que había más historias sobre ellos, tenía que leer este. En general y sin ser un mal libro, me ha decepcionado, no aporta nada, ¿escrito un poco por obligación, por compromiso?
De todas formas, me quedé enganchada a los personajes y sabiendo que había más historias sobre ellos, tenía que leer este. En general y sin ser un mal libro, me ha decepcionado, no aporta nada, ¿escrito un poco por obligación, por compromiso?
July 29, 2008
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 Petal. They show Sugar treating Christopher to a nice Christmas meal at Mrs Castaway's, Sugar having to deal with proselytising evangelists, and Emmeline writing letters to American slave owners. They're nice enough stories, but to my critical eye, they look rather like outtakes from the book with which Faber couldn't quite part. The remaining four stories, which take place after the ending of The Crimson Petal, are much better in my opinion. I delighted in seeing the unpleasant fate of Clara, the Rackhams' evil servant. I grinned at Mr Bodley's unenthusiastic visit to a brothel, which culminates in a laugh-out-loud encounter with a Malaysian prostitute who hasn't had a chance to learn proper English yet. I nodded with satisfaction at the poetic justice of William Rackham's fate. And most of all, I relished the opportunity to see what had become of Sophie Rackham, and how she had implemented the lessons Miss Sugar taught her. Sophie's is an interesting, occasionally poignant tale with some nice historical tangents -- the best in the collection, I think. But as much as I enjoyed the various vignettes, they didn't satisfy me. I wanted more. I wanted to hear what had become of Caroline and the Rackhams' lecherous driver. I wanted to hear what had become of Christopher, the young brothel boy. And most of all, I wanted to hear -- in detail! -- what had become of Sugar, The Crimson Petal's heroine. Amazingly enough, Sugar's post-Petal life hardly gets a mention in The Apple. We learn where she took Sophie and that they did a bit of exploring together, but we never find out what Sugar ended up making of herself. Nor do we get a full account of Sugar's post-abduction relationship with Sophie, or find out what Sophie really felt about the abduction, because the one time the subject is brought up is in a story which isn't told from Sophie's point of view. Seriously, how sucky is that?
As for the stand-alone value of The Apple, I don't think it has any. Sure, the stories have their charms, and the one about Sophie's later years is actually quite interesting from a historical point of view, but I doubt they'll mean much to people who aren't already familiar with the characters. Nor do I think they make particularly good examples of the short story in general. Faber may be a fabulous novelist, but short stories aren't his forte, and it shows here. The seven stories in The Apple are a very nice try, but they don't live up to the expectations raised by The Crimson Petal. Then again, very few things do.
I know Faber has said he won't write a sequel to The Crimson Petal and the White, but I'm harbouring a secret hope that the fact that there's hardly any information on Sugar's post-Petal life in The Apple means that Faber intends to write a full-length account of it elsewhere. If that ever happens, I'll be first in line to read it.
-------
ORIGINAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Short stories about the characters from The Crimson Petal and the White, which you should all read because it's amazing!
Three of the stories in The Apple are set before the events of The Crimson Petal. They show Sugar treating Christopher to a nice Christmas meal at Mrs Castaway's, Sugar having to deal with proselytising evangelists, and Emmeline writing letters to American slave owners. They're nice enough stories, but to my critical eye, they look rather like outtakes from the book with which Faber couldn't quite part. The remaining four stories, which take place after the ending of The Crimson Petal, are much better in my opinion. I delighted in seeing the unpleasant fate of Clara, the Rackhams' evil servant. I grinned at Mr Bodley's unenthusiastic visit to a brothel, which culminates in a laugh-out-loud encounter with a Malaysian prostitute who hasn't had a chance to learn proper English yet. I nodded with satisfaction at the poetic justice of William Rackham's fate. And most of all, I relished the opportunity to see what had become of Sophie Rackham, and how she had implemented the lessons Miss Sugar taught her. Sophie's is an interesting, occasionally poignant tale with some nice historical tangents -- the best in the collection, I think. But as much as I enjoyed the various vignettes, they didn't satisfy me. I wanted more. I wanted to hear what had become of Caroline and the Rackhams' lecherous driver. I wanted to hear what had become of Christopher, the young brothel boy. And most of all, I wanted to hear -- in detail! -- what had become of Sugar, The Crimson Petal's heroine. Amazingly enough, Sugar's post-Petal life hardly gets a mention in The Apple. We learn where she took Sophie and that they did a bit of exploring together, but we never find out what Sugar ended up making of herself. Nor do we get a full account of Sugar's post-abduction relationship with Sophie, or find out what Sophie really felt about the abduction, because the one time the subject is brought up is in a story which isn't told from Sophie's point of view. Seriously, how sucky is that?
As for the stand-alone value of The Apple, I don't think it has any. Sure, the stories have their charms, and the one about Sophie's later years is actually quite interesting from a historical point of view, but I doubt they'll mean much to people who aren't already familiar with the characters. Nor do I think they make particularly good examples of the short story in general. Faber may be a fabulous novelist, but short stories aren't his forte, and it shows here. The seven stories in The Apple are a very nice try, but they don't live up to the expectations raised by The Crimson Petal. Then again, very few things do.
I know Faber has said he won't write a sequel to The Crimson Petal and the White, but I'm harbouring a secret hope that the fact that there's hardly any information on Sugar's post-Petal life in The Apple means that Faber intends to write a full-length account of it elsewhere. If that ever happens, I'll be first in line to read it.
-------
ORIGINAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Short stories about the characters from The Crimson Petal and the White, which you should all read because it's amazing!
August 28, 2018
This is nowhere near as good or as rich as The Crimson Petal and the White. I knew it wouldn't be, but I did expect more subtext from this author. Don't let the 199 page-count fool you either. The physical pages are short, the font is fairly big and it reads quickly. I bought it for a pittance at a library sale, so I'm fine with that, and it is a pretty little book with its own ribbon marker.
The stories are technically standalones (a point Faber makes in his foreword), but I wonder how much interest someone who hasn't read The Crimson Petal and the White would have in them. For me, the best thing about this book is its causing me to recall from the novel favorite scenes, such as the luminous visit to the lavender fields, even though I read it several years ago.
In the foreword Faber references letters he received from fans after they finished The Crimson Petal and the White (space filler?) which was fairly interesting, as were as his responses. He goes on to say that the last story (the longest) is as satisfying to him as one of his best novels (I'm paraphrasing) and with that I feel he's being disingenuous. The story, with its narrator's giving us a glimpse of his Edwardian life from the vantage point of his now-great age in the 20th century, has a great title and a metafictional element (two lines) that seem to reference those 21st century fans that clamored for a sequel to The Crimson Petal and the White. I am not one of those fans: I was wholly satisfied with the novel as is and I may go reread certain passages of it right now.
The stories are technically standalones (a point Faber makes in his foreword), but I wonder how much interest someone who hasn't read The Crimson Petal and the White would have in them. For me, the best thing about this book is its causing me to recall from the novel favorite scenes, such as the luminous visit to the lavender fields, even though I read it several years ago.
In the foreword Faber references letters he received from fans after they finished The Crimson Petal and the White (space filler?) which was fairly interesting, as were as his responses. He goes on to say that the last story (the longest) is as satisfying to him as one of his best novels (I'm paraphrasing) and with that I feel he's being disingenuous. The story, with its narrator's giving us a glimpse of his Edwardian life from the vantage point of his now-great age in the 20th century, has a great title and a metafictional element (two lines) that seem to reference those 21st century fans that clamored for a sequel to The Crimson Petal and the White. I am not one of those fans: I was wholly satisfied with the novel as is and I may go reread certain passages of it right now.
July 3, 2020
Little collection of spin-off stories about characters from The Crimson Petal and the White
I personally think, that although I enjoyed this, (because of the wonderful characters) it was just an excuse for the author to cash in on Petals’ popularity without having to write a proper sequel.
I particularly liked the final chapter “A Mighty Horde of Women in Very Big Hats, Advancing”. That title is just utterly divine! Also, whom was narrating said chapter. I won’t disclose who!
3.5 stars rounded down to 3.
I personally think, that although I enjoyed this, (because of the wonderful characters) it was just an excuse for the author to cash in on Petals’ popularity without having to write a proper sequel.
I particularly liked the final chapter “A Mighty Horde of Women in Very Big Hats, Advancing”. That title is just utterly divine! Also, whom was narrating said chapter. I won’t disclose who!
3.5 stars rounded down to 3.
November 20, 2015
Kvítek byl pro mě skorem zjevení, nadchl mě ten svět, postavy, jazyk, kterým byl psán (a přeložen), takže jsem se na další příběhy těšila. A čtou se krásně, některé povídky jsou jen střípky či střípečky, které klidně mohly vypadnout při ořezu dokonalého okna "Kvítku", v tom příběhu mohly být a nerušily by. V této povídkové sbírce si je můžeme zasadit do kontextu a rozhodně nepořežou. Akorát jsou ty střípky někdy hodně titěrné a hladový čtenář by je chtěl malinko větší, tak je lačný po oblíbených postavách, místech, příbězích. Ale musí se bohužel smířit s tím, že nikdy nebude zcela nasycen, protože "Kvítku" nikdy nebude dost a vlastně by se dal číst donekonečna. Už jsem se smířila s tím, že se zcela nedozvím, co se s těmi kterými postavami přesně stalo, a vlastně mi nevadí, že je to otevřené, pořád je prostor pro spekulace, i když Faber malinko naznačuje.
Ze všech povídek bych rozhodně vyzdvihla tu poslední "Mohutná postupující horda žen v moc velkých kloboucích" - ta by naprosto obstála sama o sobě, i kdybych "Kvítek" předtím nečetla, takže tahle povídka ode mě dostává 5+. Dohromady ale dávám 4, asi i proto, že celkově Jablko Kvítek nedohonilo, jen hodně hezky doplnilo. Fakt je, že přjít Faber s dalšími úlomky, byť sebeminiaturnějšími, okamžitě po nich lapnu a budu doplňovat dál.
Ze všech povídek bych rozhodně vyzdvihla tu poslední "Mohutná postupující horda žen v moc velkých kloboucích" - ta by naprosto obstála sama o sobě, i kdybych "Kvítek" předtím nečetla, takže tahle povídka ode mě dostává 5+. Dohromady ale dávám 4, asi i proto, že celkově Jablko Kvítek nedohonilo, jen hodně hezky doplnilo. Fakt je, že přjít Faber s dalšími úlomky, byť sebeminiaturnějšími, okamžitě po nich lapnu a budu doplňovat dál.
January 13, 2016
Nelze se ubránit srovnání s Kvítkem, byť je toto jen takové doplnění. V hudební branži se tomu říká rarity, jsou to nevydané písně, které se prostě z různých důvodů na album nedostaly. Ale pro fanoušky kapely mají velký význam. Nejlépe publikované s patřičným odstupem. Stejně tak je to s Jablkem. Srovnání s tím Faberem z Kvítku je žalostné, ale jako fanoušek jeho opusu musím říci, že je to povinnost přečíst. Už pro poslední povídku, která byla o několik úrovní lepší než předchozí všechny dohromady. Jablko je stínem Kvítku, ale je to sběratelská rarita a všem co četli původní knihu musím doporučit. Už proto, že si určitě vypracovali vztah k některým postavám. Tady se zase na chvíli mohou ponořit do světa, co jim tak učaroval. (Byla by však neúcta ke Kvítku dát i 4 hvězdičky)
March 18, 2012
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 didn't bother me as much as others, and I would have been happy to stick with my imagined futures for the characters.
Christmas in Silver Street: very sweet, an illustration of Sugar's maternal instincts, which also explain her affinity for Sophie
Clara and the Rat Man: I forgot who Clara was, but she's a whore now who completes a strange request for one of her customers. The motive behind the request is pretty twisted, if I've interpreted the ending correctly.
Chocolate Hearts from the New World: cute, but not very interesting
The Fly, and Its Effect upon Mr Bodley: in which Mr Bodley has an existential crisis. The story tries too consciously to make me think about the pointlessness of repeated activities. I liked the phrasing of the last few lines though.
The Apple: my favorite of the collection. The plot is less memorable than the other stories, but made worth it by the following gems:
"Reading, by its very nature, is an admission of defeat, a ritual of self-humiliation: it shows that you believe other lives are more interesting than yours"
"In every story she reads, the women are limp and spineless and insufferably virtuous. They harbour no hatred, they think only of marriage, they don't exist below the neck, they eat but never shit. Where are the authentic, flesh-and-blood women in modern English fiction? There aren't any!"
Both passages capture exactly what I've felt while reading at sometime or another.
Medicine: poor William, is all I can say. Happiness evades William quite excessively here. I'd rather keep my own idea of how his life turned out.
A Mighty Horde of Women in Very Big Hats, Advancing: well, you find out what happens to Sophie, whose outcome as a headstrong woman didn't surprise me. Neither the prose nor story captured me, though I appreciated Faber's commentary on what was considered unnatural for women at the time.
I appreciated these lines in particular:
"playful phantoms, ducking behind one another, running round and round our cab"
"what happens to music once it's gone inside your ears"
Christmas in Silver Street: very sweet, an illustration of Sugar's maternal instincts, which also explain her affinity for Sophie
Clara and the Rat Man: I forgot who Clara was, but she's a whore now who completes a strange request for one of her customers. The motive behind the request is pretty twisted, if I've interpreted the ending correctly.
Chocolate Hearts from the New World: cute, but not very interesting
The Fly, and Its Effect upon Mr Bodley: in which Mr Bodley has an existential crisis. The story tries too consciously to make me think about the pointlessness of repeated activities. I liked the phrasing of the last few lines though.
The Apple: my favorite of the collection. The plot is less memorable than the other stories, but made worth it by the following gems:
"Reading, by its very nature, is an admission of defeat, a ritual of self-humiliation: it shows that you believe other lives are more interesting than yours"
"In every story she reads, the women are limp and spineless and insufferably virtuous. They harbour no hatred, they think only of marriage, they don't exist below the neck, they eat but never shit. Where are the authentic, flesh-and-blood women in modern English fiction? There aren't any!"
Both passages capture exactly what I've felt while reading at sometime or another.
Medicine: poor William, is all I can say. Happiness evades William quite excessively here. I'd rather keep my own idea of how his life turned out.
A Mighty Horde of Women in Very Big Hats, Advancing: well, you find out what happens to Sophie, whose outcome as a headstrong woman didn't surprise me. Neither the prose nor story captured me, though I appreciated Faber's commentary on what was considered unnatural for women at the time.
I appreciated these lines in particular:
"playful phantoms, ducking behind one another, running round and round our cab"
"what happens to music once it's gone inside your ears"
March 26, 2009
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 future.
We get another glimpse into Sugar’s life before meeting William Rackham, and in this story there are four sentences that highlight the part of the nature of Faber’s Crimson Petal stories:
“In every story she reads, the women are limp and spineless and insufferably virtuous. They harbour no hatred, they think of only marriage, they don’t exist below the neck, they eat but never shit. Where are the authentic, flesh-and-blood women in modern English fiction? There aren’t any!”
In return for our commercial loyalty to the author, we learn of Sophie’s fate through the memories of her son. The maternal affection and bonding, so painfully absent in The Crimson Petal, is now fully realised.
Does Faber rekindle the readers desire for Sugar’s life story? Yes, this is achieved.
But this tome is a crude commercial vehicle to keep us engaged, like a well executed, brand reminding, marketing exercise, designed to maintain our interest whilst the movie-makers struggle to deliver on their option.
The door into Sugar’s life is blatantly and deliberately ajar, and like all the best prostitutes, the reader is left with the temptation to meet with her again. Whether we will be persuaded to part with our money for a second collection of short stories is another question?
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 future.
We get another glimpse into Sugar’s life before meeting William Rackham, and in this story there are four sentences that highlight the part of the nature of Faber’s Crimson Petal stories:
“In every story she reads, the women are limp and spineless and insufferably virtuous. They harbour no hatred, they think of only marriage, they don’t exist below the neck, they eat but never shit. Where are the authentic, flesh-and-blood women in modern English fiction? There aren’t any!”
In return for our commercial loyalty to the author, we learn of Sophie’s fate through the memories of her son. The maternal affection and bonding, so painfully absent in The Crimson Petal, is now fully realised.
Does Faber rekindle the readers desire for Sugar’s life story? Yes, this is achieved.
But this tome is a crude commercial vehicle to keep us engaged, like a well executed, brand reminding, marketing exercise, designed to maintain our interest whilst the movie-makers struggle to deliver on their option.
The door into Sugar’s life is blatantly and deliberately ajar, and like all the best prostitutes, the reader is left with the temptation to meet with her again. Whether we will be persuaded to part with our money for a second collection of short stories is another question?
November 23, 2023
Set of seven short stories featuring characters from Michel Faber’s novel The Crimson Petal and the White, which should be read first to gain the necessary context. These stories transport the reader back to Victorian England. We learn more about Sugar, William, Agnes, Clara, and Mr. Bodley, and meet several new characters. These vignettes provide additional backstories as well as what happened to them after the timeline of the novel. Faber is a gifted author, and the writing is one of the highlights. I particularly enjoyed the first story, Christmas in Silver Street, and the last, A Mighty Horde of Women in Very Big Hats, Advancing, told by Sophie’s son as an older man, which is the length of a novella. If you enjoyed the original book, you will likely enjoy these companion pieces.
3.5
3.5
September 5, 2021
I enjoyed this book, as its a continuation of short stories which follow on from the main novel The Crimson Petal and the White. The original novel which was quite dense and filled with many well rounded and colourful characters had an ending that was left open for the reader to resolve themselves, which did leave me wanting more and apparently it left many other readers feeling the same because Faber has specifically written this anthology simply to please his many readers.
His introduction explains that he received many requests from readers asking for a resolution to the original book, he even goes as far as to publish examples of those requests, and some of these are quite funny. Anyway, back to this book. He does resolve some of the loose ends in these stories which I found quite satisfying and at the same time I felt like I was visiting some old friends.
His introduction explains that he received many requests from readers asking for a resolution to the original book, he even goes as far as to publish examples of those requests, and some of these are quite funny. Anyway, back to this book. He does resolve some of the loose ends in these stories which I found quite satisfying and at the same time I felt like I was visiting some old friends.
July 31, 2011
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), Bodley (William’s incorrigibly bawdy friend), and of course, the self-serving cad (William himself) who had seemingly lost both wife and daughter. Faber offers interesting glimpses into the lives of these characters – some stories going farther back in time to pre-Crimson Petal days and a few moving forward post-Crimson Petal. Though not intended as a sequel, The Apple let it be known that Sugar and Sophie survived well and this imparted a small measure of comfort to readers like me who had grown fond of them. The Apple lacks the magnetic energy of its predecessor but nonetheless makes a good read.
December 30, 2019
4-and-a-bit stars. This has been on my tbr since I read The Crimson Petal and the White a year ago (almost exactly a year ago - I finished this on December 30th, having finished up TCP&TW on December 31st last year - if I'd realised that, I'd have planned better and set this aside to finish tomorrow lol) - and this was just lovely. The writing is just as good as in the book on which it's based, and while this is a series of short stories rather than a full novel, it felt - surprisingly, to me - like visiting old friends. A very satisfactory final book for 2019 (unless I hibernate for the next 38 hours and read something else by year's-end, which is entirely possible...)
August 16, 2007
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 various characters first seen in "The Crimson Petal and the White". What is interesting about both these collections is that rather than neatening the edges they have rather sought to increase and further the ambiguity. This works particularly well in the case of Sugar as her character is already so difficult to pin down. In fact, this was one of the triumphs of the first book where Sugar was a rather chameleonic (is that a word?) character, adopting the attributes that best suited the situation rather than divulging anything of herself - a method of writing that particularly suited her line of work as a prostitute.
I particularly loved the short story format. The form is so difficult to get right and this collection was deceptively simple. It was only when I glanced back over the story of "Clara and the Rat Man" that I realised how beautifully the timescale was handled as Clara flips from remembering the past to approaching the future. It was beautifully textured, layering memory with present experience and drove home very forcefully how talented a writer Faber is. It was like discovering a seam in a piece of clothing after hours of examination that was so exquisitely done that it was almost entirely hidden from view.
Time, place and the voices of the individual characters are all elegantly done. For once I agree the back of the books blurb.
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 various characters first seen in "The Crimson Petal and the White". What is interesting about both these collections is that rather than neatening the edges they have rather sought to increase and further the ambiguity. This works particularly well in the case of Sugar as her character is already so difficult to pin down. In fact, this was one of the triumphs of the first book where Sugar was a rather chameleonic (is that a word?) character, adopting the attributes that best suited the situation rather than divulging anything of herself - a method of writing that particularly suited her line of work as a prostitute.
I particularly loved the short story format. The form is so difficult to get right and this collection was deceptively simple. It was only when I glanced back over the story of "Clara and the Rat Man" that I realised how beautifully the timescale was handled as Clara flips from remembering the past to approaching the future. It was beautifully textured, layering memory with present experience and drove home very forcefully how talented a writer Faber is. It was like discovering a seam in a piece of clothing after hours of examination that was so exquisitely done that it was almost entirely hidden from view.
Time, place and the voices of the individual characters are all elegantly done. For once I agree the back of the books blurb.
November 24, 2015
After my discontent following the conclusion of The Crimson Petal and the White, this helped a bit...and it's a nice little collection of stories in Faber's distinctive style.
If you haven't read the novel, be warned that this review contains spoilers of the novel, but not the short story collection.
At least three of these stories take place after the conclusion of the novel and give varying degrees of closure to the characters' stories. William's fate is clear and well-deserved. Sophie's is glimpsed through the memories of her now elderly son, with mere shadows of Sugar filtering through him. Clara is the other character that we catch up with, shortly after the events of the novel, and her fate is a little surprising. Of Agnes, we know nothing at all. (That's okay, though, because I know she spent the rest of her short life in a nunnery, finally at peace by the time her brain tumor killed her.)
A fourth story, which takes place somewhere in the same time frame, but could be before, during, or after the events of the novel, concerns Bodley and his sleep-deprivation induced existential crisis, and is by far the most amusing of the collection.
Two other touching stories feature a younger Sugar, and an amusing one gives us a glimpse of teenage Emmeline. In the forward, Faber says that he tried to write another story about Henry, but Henry refused to cooperate. (If I'd been as royally screwed by Faber, I would, too.)
If you haven't read the novel, be warned that this review contains spoilers of the novel, but not the short story collection.
At least three of these stories take place after the conclusion of the novel and give varying degrees of closure to the characters' stories. William's fate is clear and well-deserved. Sophie's is glimpsed through the memories of her now elderly son, with mere shadows of Sugar filtering through him. Clara is the other character that we catch up with, shortly after the events of the novel, and her fate is a little surprising. Of Agnes, we know nothing at all. (That's okay, though, because I know she spent the rest of her short life in a nunnery, finally at peace by the time her brain tumor killed her.)
A fourth story, which takes place somewhere in the same time frame, but could be before, during, or after the events of the novel, concerns Bodley and his sleep-deprivation induced existential crisis, and is by far the most amusing of the collection.
Two other touching stories feature a younger Sugar, and an amusing one gives us a glimpse of teenage Emmeline. In the forward, Faber says that he tried to write another story about Henry, but Henry refused to cooperate. (If I'd been as royally screwed by Faber, I would, too.)
September 20, 2011
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 strange chap who asks her to grow her one of her fingernails really long. The two attend a rat and dog fight in an underground pub where she is asked to do something to him with the fingernail.
The next one is about a libertine who has a spell of existentialism.
Another is about a letter from an American gentlemen to an English missionary woman living with her dad.
"Medicine" is about an elderly perfumier who dreams of the time he spent with the prostitute from the first story, Sugar.
The final one is about a suffragette movement march in Bloomsbury in 1908.
They're all interesting stories with believable characters and settings and overall the book is amusing if brief. It's not Faber's best but highlights once again his skill with the short story medium. Not one that's going to influence anyone or change your life but an interesting diversion and a quick read. One day I'll get around to reading his gigantic novel that preceded this collection.
"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 strange chap who asks her to grow her one of her fingernails really long. The two attend a rat and dog fight in an underground pub where she is asked to do something to him with the fingernail.
The next one is about a libertine who has a spell of existentialism.
Another is about a letter from an American gentlemen to an English missionary woman living with her dad.
"Medicine" is about an elderly perfumier who dreams of the time he spent with the prostitute from the first story, Sugar.
The final one is about a suffragette movement march in Bloomsbury in 1908.
They're all interesting stories with believable characters and settings and overall the book is amusing if brief. It's not Faber's best but highlights once again his skill with the short story medium. Not one that's going to influence anyone or change your life but an interesting diversion and a quick read. One day I'll get around to reading his gigantic novel that preceded this collection.
January 10, 2020
I devoured this after finishing The Crimson Petal and the White as I was desperate to find out what became of the characters after that open ending. This little volume of short stories provided some answers and was essentially the literary equivalent of scratching an itch. It was enjoyable enough, though frustrating in equal measure. It kept following characters I didn't want to know about (Clara, Bodley) and not those I was most desperate to get closure for (Agnes, future Sugar). It was also not as intricate and profound as the novel, but then again, how could it be...
I'm glad I was able to read it soon after The Crimson Petal, and in a way I liked that it left The Crimson Petal intact and didn't tie up all its loose ends, as that would take away from the intention behind the ending that Faber originally crafted.
I'm glad I was able to read it soon after The Crimson Petal, and in a way I liked that it left The Crimson Petal intact and didn't tie up all its loose ends, as that would take away from the intention behind the ending that Faber originally crafted.
January 8, 2016
Na chvilku jsem znovu pootevrela dvere a podivala se za jiz znamymi postavami. Uz predmluva me v okamziku vratila do doby cteni Kvitku, ten jazyk - jeho preklad, styl psani, chybelo mi to. I kdyz se jedna o sedm kratkych povidek, moc jsem si je uzila, at se odehraly pred nebo po Kvitku. Mrzi me, ze si nepamatuju uplne vsechny detaily a u nekterych veci si tak nebyla nekdy jista 'jak to tam pak bylo' :) Kazdopadne, Sugar a jeji myslenky PRED, skvele, mladicka Emmelina, vyvoj Clary, Bodleyho, Williama, ale hlavne zaver, ze Sofie jsem mela radost, nekere momenty me dojimaly. Postavy si ziji svym zivotem, jen smrt to dokaze zmarit, jak je trefne podotknuto v predmluve. Ani mi nevadi, ze nektere veci presne nevíme, pribeh skrze nas a nasi fantazii neustale probiha a muzeme se jen domyslet.
March 4, 2014
I was desperate to read this, to find out more. I still feel like I don't know everything I need to know about these wonderful characters.
I enjoyed the format of the book, the short stories of each person. I did raise my eyebrow a couple if Times whilst reading this but in a good way.
I need more. I doubt we'll ever get more but I will live in hope. In the meantime, I will grieve.
On a side note, I spent my Sunday watching the TV series, which I can, hand on heart say, was pretty spectacular. Usually, a film/television production would never do a book justice. I believe that the series on BBC did the best job it possibly could. I loved it.
I enjoyed the format of the book, the short stories of each person. I did raise my eyebrow a couple if Times whilst reading this but in a good way.
I need more. I doubt we'll ever get more but I will live in hope. In the meantime, I will grieve.
On a side note, I spent my Sunday watching the TV series, which I can, hand on heart say, was pretty spectacular. Usually, a film/television production would never do a book justice. I believe that the series on BBC did the best job it possibly could. I loved it.
April 21, 2019
Ten otevřený konec Kvítku mě nakonec donutil pořídit si i tuhle sbírku, musel jsem prostě aspoň rámcově vědět, jak to se Sugar a Sofií dopadlo :)
Co jsem potřeboval, to jsem dostal, a k tomu ještě pár věcí navíc. Hodně se mi líbila závěrečná "Mohutná postupující horda žen v moc velkých kloboucích", pak ještě třeba "Clara a Krysí muž". Zbytek povídek mě až tak nezaujal, četly se ale hezky všechny.
Co jsem potřeboval, to jsem dostal, a k tomu ještě pár věcí navíc. Hodně se mi líbila závěrečná "Mohutná postupující horda žen v moc velkých kloboucích", pak ještě třeba "Clara a Krysí muž". Zbytek povídek mě až tak nezaujal, četly se ale hezky všechny.
May 29, 2012
The Apple stories were all very engaging, and very well written, just like the novel. Some light is shed on what happened to Sugar and Sophie, but not so much that as to dispel the mystery of the the original novel. If anything, these stories make me want to read The Crimson Petal all over again.
April 12, 2019
I do t feel that this enlightened on the ending of the crimson petal novel. The short stories were okay , but didn’t really grab my attention to be honest.
December 20, 2019
More petals, crimson and white
I’m one reader that found Michel Faber’s ‘The Crimson Petal and the White’ to be a stupendous achievement. It is a novel that Charles Dickens would never dare to write even if the moral standards of his time had been looser although he would have brushed against much of the subject matter. It contains a Dickensian breadth of humanity from several walks of Victorian life including several quite memorable characters. Many people have criticized the open-endedness of its conclusion. I was perfectly fine with the ending, which I felt did impose an obvious break in the story. When a couple of characters get on a boat to travel to another continent, that is an enforced ending, concluding the business they had with other characters through geographical separation. However, other readers wanted more closure. Faber has given his readers not more closure but more strands of narrative from some of the ‘Crimson Petal’ characters.
What we have are mostly very brief stories that have the sense of ending before they’ve barely gotten started. The narratives feel uniformly insubstantial to me, although they do reintroduce me to some of the familiar characters. The most interesting character from ‘The Crimson Petal and the White’ was Sugar, the literate, and literary, prostitute, an intelligent, independent woman who has come to terms with the reality of her circumstances and has the wits and the emotional maturity to deal with what’s in front of her until something better comes along, which she fully intends to manifest.
The first story in the collection, “Christmas in Silver Street”, begins with the same tour guide narrator that led our way through ‘Crimson Petal’, zooming into December of 1872. We are with Sugar in her domain on Silver Street and the streets look like a Dickensian Christmas:
“Snow makes everyone and everything look equal, as if God has lovingly applied a thin layer of white icing to rooftops, street-stalls, carriages, and the heads of beggars. Suffering and decrepitude are scarcely recognisable under such a pretty disguise.”
Even the sentiment sounds like something Dickens would have written. Sugar is inspecting her tongue in her bedroom in Mrs. Castaway’s brothel and there’s no sign of any festive decoration anywhere in the house. The wash-boy Christopher comes for Sugar’s sheets and, when Sugar reminds him that it’s Christmas, says he doesn’t know what it is. The sound of carolers can be heard down the street. Much like the boy sent by Scrooge to get a roasting hen, Sugar goes in search of hot food. She brings back a cooked chicken to share with Christopher. She also bought some chocolate but ate it all on the way home. Sugar provides some festivity for the boy like he’s never had, then gets ready for the busy night ahead.
“Clara and the Rat Man” is a strange little story of Clara, one of Sugar’s co-workers, and a repulsive client with a perverse request of her at a dog and rat pit. By the story’s end, Clara feels more pity than revulsion for the man.
In “Chocolate Hearts from the New World” Emmeline Fox, the pious missionary from ‘Crimson Petal’, sends letters to slave-holders in the American South beseeching them to follow their Christian consciences and set free their slaves. Most of the replies she receives are hostile, telling her to mind her own business in so many words but in one she receives a box of chocolates from a man who admires her “most elegant handwriting”.
In “The Apple”, Sugar’s reading of Anthony Trollope is interrupted by the exhortations of do-gooders outside her window and then sees one of them slap her daughter for dropping an apple to the ground. Forgetful of everything else, Sugar springs to action and runs out to the street barefoot to jump to the defense of the mistreated child but loses sight of them.
Sugar’s selfish perfume manufacturer, William Rackham, in “Medicine”, still broods bitterly over what he feels Sugar did to him. He’s running a fever so the tenor of his thoughts is influenced by his physical state. Fifteen years later he is remarried but still laments over the death of his sickly wife and the loss of his daughter Sophie. He is just as clueless and oblivious as he was when he knew Sugar.
The final story, “A Mighty Horde of Women in Very Big Hats, Advancing”, is the longest story with the longest title. It is told by the young son of Sophie, now a suffragette returned from Australia to parade the streets of London, living a bohemian life with her artist husband and her female companion/fellow radical. We hear bits and pieces of Sophie’s life being raised by the shadowy figure Sugar, absorbed in distorted fragments by a seven-year-old boy. This has the least connection to ‘Crimson Petal’ of any of these stories. Sophie was a young child in that novel and had not evolved into a willful agent capable of affecting her life and so the Sophie of this story resembles that character in name only. This is the least successful of any of these stories partly because it occupies a different world in a later era and the characters are not particularly interesting.
All of these stories, even the last, have the same flowing, effortless style that propelled the pace of their parent novel. That novel provides this volume with a reason to exist. Taken on its own merits I would not be substantially interested or affected. I hesitate to give a three-star rating to a collection of stories that are so well-written—it more properly deserves three and a half stars. However, they don’t carry substantial literary weight to be considered more highly, based on their own merits. I would direct anyone considering reading this collection to seek out instead, if they haven’t already, ‘The Crimson Petal and the White’.
I’m one reader that found Michel Faber’s ‘The Crimson Petal and the White’ to be a stupendous achievement. It is a novel that Charles Dickens would never dare to write even if the moral standards of his time had been looser although he would have brushed against much of the subject matter. It contains a Dickensian breadth of humanity from several walks of Victorian life including several quite memorable characters. Many people have criticized the open-endedness of its conclusion. I was perfectly fine with the ending, which I felt did impose an obvious break in the story. When a couple of characters get on a boat to travel to another continent, that is an enforced ending, concluding the business they had with other characters through geographical separation. However, other readers wanted more closure. Faber has given his readers not more closure but more strands of narrative from some of the ‘Crimson Petal’ characters.
What we have are mostly very brief stories that have the sense of ending before they’ve barely gotten started. The narratives feel uniformly insubstantial to me, although they do reintroduce me to some of the familiar characters. The most interesting character from ‘The Crimson Petal and the White’ was Sugar, the literate, and literary, prostitute, an intelligent, independent woman who has come to terms with the reality of her circumstances and has the wits and the emotional maturity to deal with what’s in front of her until something better comes along, which she fully intends to manifest.
The first story in the collection, “Christmas in Silver Street”, begins with the same tour guide narrator that led our way through ‘Crimson Petal’, zooming into December of 1872. We are with Sugar in her domain on Silver Street and the streets look like a Dickensian Christmas:
“Snow makes everyone and everything look equal, as if God has lovingly applied a thin layer of white icing to rooftops, street-stalls, carriages, and the heads of beggars. Suffering and decrepitude are scarcely recognisable under such a pretty disguise.”
Even the sentiment sounds like something Dickens would have written. Sugar is inspecting her tongue in her bedroom in Mrs. Castaway’s brothel and there’s no sign of any festive decoration anywhere in the house. The wash-boy Christopher comes for Sugar’s sheets and, when Sugar reminds him that it’s Christmas, says he doesn’t know what it is. The sound of carolers can be heard down the street. Much like the boy sent by Scrooge to get a roasting hen, Sugar goes in search of hot food. She brings back a cooked chicken to share with Christopher. She also bought some chocolate but ate it all on the way home. Sugar provides some festivity for the boy like he’s never had, then gets ready for the busy night ahead.
“Clara and the Rat Man” is a strange little story of Clara, one of Sugar’s co-workers, and a repulsive client with a perverse request of her at a dog and rat pit. By the story’s end, Clara feels more pity than revulsion for the man.
In “Chocolate Hearts from the New World” Emmeline Fox, the pious missionary from ‘Crimson Petal’, sends letters to slave-holders in the American South beseeching them to follow their Christian consciences and set free their slaves. Most of the replies she receives are hostile, telling her to mind her own business in so many words but in one she receives a box of chocolates from a man who admires her “most elegant handwriting”.
In “The Apple”, Sugar’s reading of Anthony Trollope is interrupted by the exhortations of do-gooders outside her window and then sees one of them slap her daughter for dropping an apple to the ground. Forgetful of everything else, Sugar springs to action and runs out to the street barefoot to jump to the defense of the mistreated child but loses sight of them.
Sugar’s selfish perfume manufacturer, William Rackham, in “Medicine”, still broods bitterly over what he feels Sugar did to him. He’s running a fever so the tenor of his thoughts is influenced by his physical state. Fifteen years later he is remarried but still laments over the death of his sickly wife and the loss of his daughter Sophie. He is just as clueless and oblivious as he was when he knew Sugar.
The final story, “A Mighty Horde of Women in Very Big Hats, Advancing”, is the longest story with the longest title. It is told by the young son of Sophie, now a suffragette returned from Australia to parade the streets of London, living a bohemian life with her artist husband and her female companion/fellow radical. We hear bits and pieces of Sophie’s life being raised by the shadowy figure Sugar, absorbed in distorted fragments by a seven-year-old boy. This has the least connection to ‘Crimson Petal’ of any of these stories. Sophie was a young child in that novel and had not evolved into a willful agent capable of affecting her life and so the Sophie of this story resembles that character in name only. This is the least successful of any of these stories partly because it occupies a different world in a later era and the characters are not particularly interesting.
All of these stories, even the last, have the same flowing, effortless style that propelled the pace of their parent novel. That novel provides this volume with a reason to exist. Taken on its own merits I would not be substantially interested or affected. I hesitate to give a three-star rating to a collection of stories that are so well-written—it more properly deserves three and a half stars. However, they don’t carry substantial literary weight to be considered more highly, based on their own merits. I would direct anyone considering reading this collection to seek out instead, if they haven’t already, ‘The Crimson Petal and the White’.
Read
October 31, 2017A little bit patchy. I liked the Sugar ones the best which isn't surprising.
Read
November 27, 2022Provides some closure to the The Crimson Petal and the White.
October 21, 2020
I enjoyed the Crimson Petal and the White, and was keen to rejoin characters from that world. This collection are nice scenes from different characters tales, some better than others.
July 10, 2021
So obviously not as good as the original Crimson Petal, but I didn't expect it to be either! I loved all the small short stories, it was a lovely revisit to the characters, and something about Michel Fabers writing style is just so wonderfully captivating! Like in Crimson Petal and the White, I felt like I was sucked back in time, watching it all play out in front of me! Lovely revisit to one of my favourite books characters!
January 1, 2023
"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 Sophie go?
So, does this book give you the answers? Not really. You certainly get a further glimpse into Faber's Victorian world. Two stories take place before "The Crimson Petal" and four take place afterwards. It is the final one, "A Mighty Horde of Women in Very Big Hats, Advancing" that held the most interest for me as it did give you some idea of the fate of our heroine and her little charge (well, stolen charge!). I would love to see this turned into a full length novel.
Did I get all of the answers I wanted? No. I was warned by friends that I wouldn't. But it helped.
I also enjoyed the Forward in this edition which contained snippets of letters written by fans expressing their desire to know more. Helped to let me know I wasn't alone!
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 Sophie go?
So, does this book give you the answers? Not really. You certainly get a further glimpse into Faber's Victorian world. Two stories take place before "The Crimson Petal" and four take place afterwards. It is the final one, "A Mighty Horde of Women in Very Big Hats, Advancing" that held the most interest for me as it did give you some idea of the fate of our heroine and her little charge (well, stolen charge!). I would love to see this turned into a full length novel.
Did I get all of the answers I wanted? No. I was warned by friends that I wouldn't. But it helped.
I also enjoyed the Forward in this edition which contained snippets of letters written by fans expressing their desire to know more. Helped to let me know I wasn't alone!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 298 reviews