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Golden Apples
Poetry
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1935
1 person is currently reading
131 people want to read
About the author
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
83 books742 followersPeople know American writer Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings for her novel
The Yearling
(1938).
This author lived in rural Florida with rural themes and settings. Her best known work, The Yearling, about a boy who adopts an orphaned fawn, won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1939 and was later made into a movie of the same title, The Yearling. The book was written long before the concept of young-adult fiction, but is now commonly included in teen-reading lists.
This author lived in rural Florida with rural themes and settings. Her best known work, The Yearling, about a boy who adopts an orphaned fawn, won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1939 and was later made into a movie of the same title, The Yearling. The book was written long before the concept of young-adult fiction, but is now commonly included in teen-reading lists.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 10, 2011
Another astonishing read by Rawlings.
This was published before The Yearling.
Its about a small community in the Gainesville area in the early 1800's (I guess).
By the descriptions, it seems to me it's someplace near the prairie.
Two orphaned children are squatting in an abandoned house since no other family has the means to take care of them.
After some years of creating their home on the property, Luke and Alie are told that the "owner" is coming from England to live on his land.
As many of her novels are, this book explores the depths of human emotions and the complexities of relationship within family and community.
I never wanted this book to end.
The local references and descriptions of the natural world are soul soothing and delicious.
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' development of the characters, their communication, their relationships are totally ahead of her time.
Once again she has completely blown my mind.
I will buy a copy to re-read and underline and write in.
Absolutely incredible writing.
This was published before The Yearling.
Its about a small community in the Gainesville area in the early 1800's (I guess).
By the descriptions, it seems to me it's someplace near the prairie.
Two orphaned children are squatting in an abandoned house since no other family has the means to take care of them.
After some years of creating their home on the property, Luke and Alie are told that the "owner" is coming from England to live on his land.
As many of her novels are, this book explores the depths of human emotions and the complexities of relationship within family and community.
I never wanted this book to end.
The local references and descriptions of the natural world are soul soothing and delicious.
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' development of the characters, their communication, their relationships are totally ahead of her time.
Once again she has completely blown my mind.
I will buy a copy to re-read and underline and write in.
Absolutely incredible writing.
May 8, 2023
I have a well-known bias here as I adore Rawlings. Nobody can write like she can about a part of the world that I love. This novel of northern Central Florida is no exception. This is a complex and often tragic story and it comes from a time and place where things were different and I am okay with that and I am frustrated by those who judge her works based on the moral lens we wear today. The characters are layered, flawed, and real and the hammock is truly the main character and it is described beautifully. Here are some tastes...
"The woman who had spoken was the widow Raynes, a huge woman filled with goodness and venom in alternate layers."
Allie said simply, 'He figures we-uns ain't as good as him.'
'Well,' he said finally, 'in a way o' speakin', we ain't.' He flexed the muscles of his arms and back. 'You jest give him a axe and me a axe, Miss Allie, and you'll see who's the turkey on the highest limb.' 'You jest as biggety as he be,' she said placidly. 'Ain't a mite o' difference between you.'
"Shreds of mistrust, strands of hate, wound themselves together, under communal resentment, into a flaming ball of fury. Justice was to be done. There was about the business, too, unacknowledged, the excitement of the pack in hunt."
She walked boldly about the room, returning to his bookshelves to look over the titles. 'I can’t understand why people read.'
He was immensely shocked.
'But aren’t you stirred by the recorded thoughts and emotions of other people?'
'No. They only stir me face to face. If they don’t touch my life, they don’t exist.'
He said, 'At least you're honest.'
(Not gonna lie, this shocked me as well. But I liked this woman and was reminded that we need all kinds to make the world an effective place!)
Albury wagged a plump finger at her.
'Ah,' he said, 'You - "Bring forth men-children only" -
Tordell said, 'She's not at all blood-thirsty, Doctor -'
Albury chuckled.
'Of course not. It just seems more suitable.'
Camilla said impatiently, 'I don't know what you're talking about.'
(See? This is what happens when you don't read. People will compare you to Lady Macbeth right in front of you and you won't get it! But I was thrilled to have a Shakespeare moment in this novel.)
"It's the work all gone for nothing - as though children died - in some way you never expected them to die. The years you've watched the growing. You make them, you feed them, you love them. And overnight, they're gone. This far north, we know that we'll get cold every now and then to freeze the crop. You can expect it. About ten years ago, the fruit was frozen. But this has never happened before, in the memory of any one alive. The oldest men have never seen it. Nothing before has ever killed the trees."
He said slowly, "I know what you mean. It's the rather special injustice that hurts you. The feeling that you've been singled out, among men, among the generations, for some very unusual and special harm. There's a horror, Camilla, in betrayal."
She said, "I suppose it means we shouldn't ever count on anything." She spoke desperately. "I knew that about people. I've never expected any return for loving people, but treachery. But the orange groves seemed different. Something secure and lovely."
The man's substance held its own against the incidence of station.
Tordell thought in humility, "I have a long way to go, to know people. To separate what they are from what they seem to be."
It was good to look forward to the years of learning.
"The woman who had spoken was the widow Raynes, a huge woman filled with goodness and venom in alternate layers."
Allie said simply, 'He figures we-uns ain't as good as him.'
'Well,' he said finally, 'in a way o' speakin', we ain't.' He flexed the muscles of his arms and back. 'You jest give him a axe and me a axe, Miss Allie, and you'll see who's the turkey on the highest limb.' 'You jest as biggety as he be,' she said placidly. 'Ain't a mite o' difference between you.'
"Shreds of mistrust, strands of hate, wound themselves together, under communal resentment, into a flaming ball of fury. Justice was to be done. There was about the business, too, unacknowledged, the excitement of the pack in hunt."
She walked boldly about the room, returning to his bookshelves to look over the titles. 'I can’t understand why people read.'
He was immensely shocked.
'But aren’t you stirred by the recorded thoughts and emotions of other people?'
'No. They only stir me face to face. If they don’t touch my life, they don’t exist.'
He said, 'At least you're honest.'
(Not gonna lie, this shocked me as well. But I liked this woman and was reminded that we need all kinds to make the world an effective place!)
Albury wagged a plump finger at her.
'Ah,' he said, 'You - "Bring forth men-children only" -
Tordell said, 'She's not at all blood-thirsty, Doctor -'
Albury chuckled.
'Of course not. It just seems more suitable.'
Camilla said impatiently, 'I don't know what you're talking about.'
(See? This is what happens when you don't read. People will compare you to Lady Macbeth right in front of you and you won't get it! But I was thrilled to have a Shakespeare moment in this novel.)
"It's the work all gone for nothing - as though children died - in some way you never expected them to die. The years you've watched the growing. You make them, you feed them, you love them. And overnight, they're gone. This far north, we know that we'll get cold every now and then to freeze the crop. You can expect it. About ten years ago, the fruit was frozen. But this has never happened before, in the memory of any one alive. The oldest men have never seen it. Nothing before has ever killed the trees."
He said slowly, "I know what you mean. It's the rather special injustice that hurts you. The feeling that you've been singled out, among men, among the generations, for some very unusual and special harm. There's a horror, Camilla, in betrayal."
She said, "I suppose it means we shouldn't ever count on anything." She spoke desperately. "I knew that about people. I've never expected any return for loving people, but treachery. But the orange groves seemed different. Something secure and lovely."
The man's substance held its own against the incidence of station.
Tordell thought in humility, "I have a long way to go, to know people. To separate what they are from what they seem to be."
It was good to look forward to the years of learning.
March 4, 2024
Molto ben scritto, questo romanzo mi ha catapultato nella Florida di un tempo, selvaggia e indomabile.
Una chicca trovata per caso in un mercatino di libri usati.
Una chicca trovata per caso in un mercatino di libri usati.
January 3, 2023
Marjorie Rawlings had the capacity to see into the souls of her characters—and to help the attentive reader see what she saw. The plot of this story is completely different from that of The Yearling, and a few of the details may be less plausible. But the whole still rings "true" because the personalities are so believable, in all their complexity. The novel is worthy on its own, but even more so as a practice effort to fictionalize the special lives of the country people she came to know and love after she moved from a big city to her backwoods Florida house in the early 1930s. Her new neighbors, she observed, exhibited the same joys, sorrows, faults, and emotional needs as did the more educated people in her previous social circle, but their aspirations were simpler, their acceptance of life—and death—both more direct, and more profound.
I suspect that each character in Golden Apples carries some trait of Marjorie herself. Within each is a conflict that elicits our empathy; whether or not also our sympathy depends upon our own capacity to understand others unlike ourselves. Mrs. Rawlings is among the greatest of novelists. The suspense of what will happen next carries through each episode of the story, even to the last page. And I hope I will never forget Luke Brinley.
I suspect that each character in Golden Apples carries some trait of Marjorie herself. Within each is a conflict that elicits our empathy; whether or not also our sympathy depends upon our own capacity to understand others unlike ourselves. Mrs. Rawlings is among the greatest of novelists. The suspense of what will happen next carries through each episode of the story, even to the last page. And I hope I will never forget Luke Brinley.
November 21, 2016
In her second novel, Rawlings is clearly trying to write more mature characters than the ones in South Moon Under, but the book comes across as a bit overly done and inconsistent at times. Tordell's mood swings regarding Allie and the general characterization of Allie (and Rhea, for that matter) bothered me a great deal. The novel follows the life story of a brother and sister who are orphaned as children and end up occupying an abandoned home in the central Florida hammock, only to have its British owner show up to reclaim his property after he is sent away from home following a run-in with his new step-mother. Luke and Allie stay on as Tordell's servants in the home and then the book gets really weird. Not the most plausible story ever written . . . The best part of the book, by far, is the way Rawlings writes the landscapes and describes the fine art of growing an orange grove from scratch. You can tell where her passion lies!
January 24, 2015
50 shades of Cracker. My my but Miss Rawlings sure did appreciate the people of Cross Creek.
November 8, 2024
How well Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings knows her characters leads us to embrace them and care for them. She will forever be my favorite author.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews