Product Description

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 best-selling 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #116825 in Books
• Published on: 2007-07-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 199 pages

Review
"... will be read in a sitting. Unless of course you are admitted to Accident and Emergency, having come over queer, huffing with laughter, or dizzy with envy at Faber's talent. Or probably both." Tom Adair, Scotsman "The story-telling has a verve and a slyness that brook no argument... Faber remains an unrivalled master of his subject." David Robson, Sunday Telegraph "Faber's characterisation is unmatched. Sure to keep old fans happy, and win some new ones, too." Big Issue "All offer a poignant sense of the connections between stories and centuries and, thanks to Faber's characteristic mastery of intrigue, the arbitrary nature of endings." Metro"

About the Author
Michel Faber has written six previous books, most recently the highly acclaimed collection of stories, The Fahrenheit Twins, as well as the international bestseller The Crimson Petal and the White and the Whitbread-shortlisted novel, Under the Skin. He has also won several short-story awards, including the Neil Gunn, Ian St James and Macallan. Some Rain Must Fall, his debut collection, won the Saltire First Book of the Year Award in 1999. Born in Holland, brought up in Australia, he now lives in the Scottish Highlands.

Customer Reviews

Not quite a follow-up but worth reading
Back in 2003, Michel Faber published The Crimson Petal and The White - see pages and pages of rave reviews on amazon. I, along with countless other people hoped that eventually another volume of this fantastic saga would come along. Well, we kept on waiting, and now Michel Faber has provided us with a set of short stories, or maybe episodes would be a better word, about some of the characters in the earlier novel. Those who were thirsting for more will have to make do with this - it is a short book and I actually managed to read it in a day (OK, so I commute to work on the train). But it is definitely up to the same standard as the novel, and provides some revealing glimpses of what happened next (or even what happened before in one or two instances).

The main character Sugar appears, but in an episode before her starring role in the novel. Others who were "undone" are shown to have been truly undone, and never achieved a state of contentment or happiness. I won't describe the stories in any detail - they are short enough, but I think its fair to say, that this is worth reading if you loved the novel, but unfortunately have the effect of making the reader want a more substantial historical novel from Mr Faber. I regret I was not so impressed with his science fiction interlude Under The Skin (although it was good), and feel that Faber's main skill is depicting the life and manners of the Victoria era with all its heights and depths, its passion and its hypocrisy.

Another glimpse of Faber's Victorian world
Although a great doorstep of a book (in the best sense of the term), Michael Faber's "The Crimson Petal and the White" leaves you wanting more. "The Apple" supplies a little more. It contains a fascinating sequence of unconnected stories featuring characters from Crimson Petal (or with Petal connections). Some of them, it is clear, got what (we might think) they deserved after Petal closed - others get a backstory that casts light on their actions in the main volume. Most of the mystery is, though, preserved together with the scope for each reader to imagine their own continuation of the main book. (My guess, by the way, was that Sugar used the money William had given her, and her knowledge of his business, to set up her own concern - probably some distance away, in York, perhaps - which grew over time to rival and eventually supplant his. From what I read in The Apple I don't now think this is very likely, though it remains possible).

In summary, anyone who enjoyed Petal will love this - if you didn't read that book, shame on you: but you can redeem yourself now by starting with this, and then getting to know the characters better through Petal.

Addicted to the Victorian Era
I admit i have an addiction to novels set in the Victorian Era hence my love of Michel Faber's Crimson Petal & the White and now The Apple. As soon as i opened my little hardback version and started to read i knew i would be sat stationary for the next few days immersed in more stories about Sugar and her contemporaries. I was right, i don't think i even set the book down once until i'd finished the entire thing, i probably forgot to breathe at times, i was enjoying it so much! The unfortunate thing is there hasn't been another set of stories for me to read since, i literally cannot wait for another set to arrive in my recommended list on amazon.
If you're not sure about buying this book i would say do it! That way you can read a little book of short stories and once you enjoy it you still have the massive Crimson Petal and the White to move onto.