The Barly Fields: A Collection of Five Novels

by Robert Nathan

Intro by Stephen Vincent Benét. A collection of five short novels - The Fiddler in Barly, The Woodcutter's House, The Bishop's Wife, The Orchid, There is Another Heaven.

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1931

About the author

Robert Gruntal Nathan was born into a prominent New York Sephardic family. He was educated in the United States and Switzerland and attended Harvard University for several years beginning in 1912. It was there that he began writing short fiction and poetry. However, he never graduated, choosing instead to drop out and take a job at an advertising firm to support his family (he married while a junior at Harvard). It was while working in 1919 that he wrote his first novel—the semi-autobiographical work Peter Kindred—which was a critical failure. But his luck soon changed during the 1920s, when he wrote seven more novels, including The Bishop's Wife, which was later made into a successful film starring Cary Grant, David Niven, and Loretta Young.

During the 1930s, his success continued with more works, including fictional pieces and poetry. In 1940, he wrote his most successful book, Portrait of Jennie, about a Depression-era artist and the woman he is painting, who is slipping through time. Portrait of Jennie is considered a modern masterpiece of fantasy fiction and was made into a film, starring Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotten.

In January 1956 the author wrote, as well as narrated, an episode of the CBS Radio Workshop, called "A Pride of Carrots or Venus Well-Served."

Nathan's seventh wife was the British actress Anna Lee, to whom he was married from 1970 until his death. He came from a talented family — the activist Maud Nathan and author Annie Nathan Meyer were his aunts, and the poet Emma Lazarus and Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo his cousins

Reviews

[Buck Plankchest · Rating 2 out of 5]

Average corncobbery, not bucolic enough for my taste.

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Fiddler In Barly ***
The Woodcutter's House ****
The Bishop's Wife ****
The Orchid *****
There Is Another Heaven ****

[Beckiezra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not going to read this anymore but I feel bad just removing it entirely from my bookshelf since no one has reviewed it. I got this to read The Bishop's Wife after I saw the movie staring Cary Grant. I absolutely loved the movie but the original story had a pretty different feel. I neglected to renew the book in time so I have to take it back to the library before I read any other stories in the book. I didn't think I'd have time to read all of The Bishop's Wife either so I skipped ahead to the end and it definitely lacked the happy resolution of the movie where Dudley helped the Bishop realize the cathedral didn't matter as much as people and he needed to focus more on his wife's needs. Even though I skipped to the end I ended up reading the entire story, mostly backwards because I kept seeing bits and had to go early to find out what had happened. :) So my assessment of the story might be a bit disjointed. I mean it seemed like some characters came out of nowhere but was that just because of how I read it?

The story was much more about the lack of satisfaction in a marriage because of physical intimacy issues than the movie would lead you to believe. I suppose that's to be expected, what's okay to say in books in the 1940s isn't necessarily okay to show on the silver screen.

I didn't particularly enjoy Nathan's take on angels, they were rather carnal for all he tried to emphasize their divinity. Being exposed to mortals made Michael kind of lose his divinity, but he was an interesting character for sure even if he wasn't Dudley from the movie. Really from the start he wasn't all that angelic, but that was kind of explained by saying that God reflected the people and the current standards which is pretty much the opposite of how I see God and his relationship to man. I also wasn't a big fan of Nathan's interpretation of religion as business though I suppose it's true for many religions and even more so when trying to get something built.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read the first novel in this set of 5. It was a random pickup from Powell's. I can't decide if I liked it or not. It wasn't absorbing or even that engaging at times, even though the genre is usually my favorite. However, I think it was very well written and possibly even insightful. It ended abpruptly and I think relies on the further stories for fleshing out. It actually was surprisingly dark for what comes across as a light story of rural life. I'll come back to finish the rest another time.