The Golden Apples
1949 short story collection by Eudora Welty
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The Golden Apples is a short story collection written by Eudora Welty, first published in 1949. The stories form an interrelated cycle, which explores the economic and social plight of the fictional Morgana Mississippi.[1] Author Katherine Anne Porter wrote the introduction to the volume.[2][3][4]
First edition cover | |
| Publisher | Harcourt Brace Javanovich |
|---|---|
| Publication date | 1949 |
| Media type | Print (hardback) |
| Pages | 277 |
| OCLC | 290903 |
The characters in Welty's stories are influenced by classical myth, myth, and rural forklore.[5] Her appreciation of poet William Butler Yeats also informed the collection.[6]
Stories
- "Shower of Gold" (The Atlantic, May 1948)
- "June Recital" (Harper's Bazaar, September 1947; a.k.a. "Golden Apples")
- "Sir Rabbit" (The Hudson Review, Spring 1949)
- "Moon Lake" (The Sewanee Review, Summer 1949)
- "The Whole World Knows" (Harper's Bazaar, March 1947)
- "Music from Spain" (Levee Press, Music From Spain, pub. June 1948)
- "The Wanderers" (Harper's Bazaar, March 1949; a.k.a. "The Hummingbirds")
Retrospective appraisal
Reexamining the collection in 2011, The Independent critic David Evans described the collection as evocative, "But it is her vivid evocations of nature that linger."[1] Another 2011 review in The Guardian wrote that the collection is "brilliantly capturing the precise timbre of a fleeting moment and revealing its startling load."[7]
Critic Pierpont, Claudia Roth reports that "the complex and deeply moving" "June Recital" was "the most personally meaningful of all her stories...which became the centerpiece" of the collection.[8]
Literary critic Daniele Pitavy-Souques regards The Golden Apples as "the central book" in Welty's body of fiction.[9]
Theme
The stories use shared themes and other literary devices to ensure that the stories operate as a unified whole.[10] One reviewer noted that "Allusion and metaphor hang as thick as Spanish moss in Welty's prose."[7]