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travelling_bookworm's review against another edition
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
“Whichever way he turned in his chair, this way or that upon the terrace, it seemed to him that he could not escape the tree, that it stood there above him, reproachful, anxious, desirous of the admiration that he could not give.”
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I will say one thing: Daphne du Maurier really knows how to write characters that you love to hate, building up the tension little by little until you are invested in the story way more than you thought.
The Apple Tree is a slow-paced ghost story about guilt, spite, and obsessive resentment, the tension ebbing and flowing as an apple tree obstinately thrives in a recently widowed man's back yard, and along with it, the memories he would rather leave in the past.
My one point of disappointment was this: although it is marketed as a Christmas ghost story (or so it says on its cover), a great ghost story it is, a Christmas story? Not so much.
--------------------
I will say one thing: Daphne du Maurier really knows how to write characters that you love to hate, building up the tension little by little until you are invested in the story way more than you thought.
The Apple Tree is a slow-paced ghost story about guilt, spite, and obsessive resentment, the tension ebbing and flowing as an apple tree obstinately thrives in a recently widowed man's back yard, and along with it, the memories he would rather leave in the past.
My one point of disappointment was this: although it is marketed as a Christmas ghost story (or so it says on its cover), a great ghost story it is, a Christmas story? Not so much.
lnatal's review against another edition
3.0
From BBC radio 4 Extra:
Recently widowed George Carey has an irrational hatred for the old apple tree in his garden.
He decides it must be dug up - but it's a decision he's going to regret for the rest of his life - what's left of it...
Series of adaptations of Daphne Du Maurier's famous short stories.
Starring Charles Gray as Mr Carey.
With Douglas Blackwell as Willis, Patricia Leventon as Midge, Katherine Parr as Mrs Lord and Daphne Rogers as Mrs Hall.
Dramatised and produced by Derek Hoddinott.
First broadcast on the BBC World Service in 1974.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09wv5qs
Recently widowed George Carey has an irrational hatred for the old apple tree in his garden.
He decides it must be dug up - but it's a decision he's going to regret for the rest of his life - what's left of it...
Series of adaptations of Daphne Du Maurier's famous short stories.
Starring Charles Gray as Mr Carey.
With Douglas Blackwell as Willis, Patricia Leventon as Midge, Katherine Parr as Mrs Lord and Daphne Rogers as Mrs Hall.
Dramatised and produced by Derek Hoddinott.
First broadcast on the BBC World Service in 1974.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09wv5qs
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