The Apple: Crimson Petal Stories Paperback – April 7, 2011

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 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'll admit it, I picked up this book hoping for some closure after the abrupt ending of the book. These stories were as well written and rich as the book, and it did tell a few stories about what happened to the characters, but it left off with an ending as abrupt and frustrating as the book. Much as I enjoy reading these stories, I won't be picking up any more of this author's work because I'm tired of these non-endings. I like the stories I read to have more closure than this.It is very well done and beautifully written, so if you don't mind the ambiguity you should enjoy these stories. They touched a bit more on the early feminist movement and the strict morals of the past. The characters are rich and compelling. I love the amount of historical detail given.

This is a great read, and adds a lot to the “crimson” book. Short stories about the main characters, which provide with more information on what happened to them. Faber is a great writer and you’ll feel transported to a bygone era in England.

For those of us who just could not get enough of Crimson Petal this will help, but not satiate, those desires. This rascal of an author does not divulge - at least entirely - of what ever became of our heroine, Miss Sugar! But, that's OK. There is enough information revealed to glean the probabilities. And background and forward character developments help to flesh out (pun intended!) our dear friends and scoundrels alike. I just wish Faber would have gone on with the reminisence! "But tomorrow is another day! Come back tomorrow, and I will tell you the rest. Everything you still want to know, I promise. Tomorrow." Ah, there is the hope of tomorrow!Faber states that this book will hold its own - that it is not necessary to read Crimson Petal first. I suppose that is a correct statement. but I am so glad that I read it prior to knowing about The Apple. Highly recommend these books and the BBC miniseries.

Prepare yourself for two fantastic hours of engrossing stories! Faber's prolific pen has given us an amuse-bouche for those whose appetites were not satisfied by the 900+ page feast of the Crimson Petal and the White.The Apple is a collection of short stories about various characters we met in his fabulous earlier novel. We get a glimpse of Sugar's days both pre- and post-William Rackham; we meet Sophie as an adult; and we get to catch glimpses of the other sordid characters of Silver Street with the same gritty eyes we were given to view it before.This is a quick read - literally, one sitting if you plan it right. Thoroughly enjoyable! More, Mr. Faber, more!

A bit of a disappointment as I wanted more, much more than this short book contains, on the life of Sugar, but a satisfying update on the lives of the characters of one of my favorite novels...

This was to be a sequel to The Crimson Petal and the White. It was such a let down! You just didn't know what had happened to the characters and it was a very short read! I would have to say after the abrupt ending of the afore mentioned book and the promise of finding out what became of the characters I expected much more!

This book is not really a sequel to the tale of Sugar from "The Crimson Petal and the White". It provides a few glimpses into the lives of some of the characters from that book but leaves out most of the story. If your expectation is to have all of your questions answered - you will be disappointed. However, if you are a fan of Michel Faber and like a tale that leaves things to the imagination - then this is a nice follow up to CP&W.

Little collection of spin-off stories about characters from The Crimson Petal and the WhiteI 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

The Crimson Petal and the White is one of my all-time favourite books and, having re-read it a couple of months ago, I was left wanting to know more about these incredible characters so I bought The Apple. Weighing in at a mere 200 pages, it does not seem like good value for money, however I was under the impression that, given that the author was Michel Faber, what The Apple lacked in size it would have made up for in quality. Sadly I was very wrong.I appreciate that Michel Faber has stated he doesn't wish to write a sequel to The Crimson Petal, which is fair enough - he is under no obligation to. However it begs the question: what on earth did he write the Apple for if not a sequel of sorts? The characters are drawn from the Crimson Petal, so the book is not unrelated to that. We do find out fragments of information of what happened to a few key characters, but there are other stories in the book that are a little pointless. Another thing is that I didn't actually like the section on the characters who joined the suffragettes movement: it did not feel believable to me and by the time I got to that story I regretted buying this book.If I'd read this first, I probably would never have read Michel Faber's masterpiece so I urge you to forget about the feeble Apple and buy the Crimson Petal and the White instead - it is a million times better. And if you've read the Crimson Petal, then I would suggest just leaving it there and drawing your own conclusions on what happens next!

Okay, it's not a sequel in the true sense of the word but for those of us who suffered years of withdrawal symptoms after the end of The Crimson Petal and the White, it was great to be able to re-enter the world we inhabited when we lived with Sugar for so many chapters. This is such a slim volume it is easy to devour in one sitting and I would have been happy to read more stories such as the ones contained here. Faber has a true gift for storytelling and is a genius at creating characters who are completely believable and real and his evocation of 19th century London makes us feel we are there, would recognise places we've read about. The Apple stories fill a gap and it was good to read more of Sugar's back story pre-Crimson Petal and the White - though I would love a proper sequel to fill in the details of her life. Reviewed by Mary Smith  No More MulberriesNo More Mulberries

This little (oh yes it's little all right!) collection of stories concerning certain characters from The Crimson Petal is a lovely way to say goodbye to them.You will get some answers, you will have some more questions, but each one will tell you something new about these people, in a mix of tales, both before and after the events of that mighty tome.You will just have to let your own imagination fill in the gaps which is exactly what Michael Faber intended I think.I am sure I will go looking for Sugar and Co. again sometime, in the filthy, seedy, malodorous streets of Victorian London.

I bought this book as the follow on from The Crimson Petal and the White, a book which I thoroughly enjoyed. This book says in the description that it picks up where the other book left off.The second book barely speaks of Sugar but goes into the story of Sophie's son.Initially I found this confusing because it seemed to start nearer to the beginning of the previous book, it did however pick up from the earlier book but I found it very disjointed. This book also leaves you hanging, again, presumably another will follow at some point. However, I doubt that I would bother to buy it. At the same cost of the first book and only half as many pages it left me very disappointed, so much more could have been filled in with this book, I felt that it somehow missed a book in between the two.