- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: The Women's Press Ltd; Reprint edition (1 April 1997)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0704345145
- ISBN-13: 978-0704345140
- Product Dimensions: 19.7 x 12.7 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,025,369 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
Winner of the Australian Booksellers' Award, this novel blurs together memories and fiction as an octogenarian narrates the legend of the silver hands to a woman in her twenties, who in turn passes on the tale to a man who claims it as his own.
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Customer Reviews
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must in any woman's library,
By dfmmlr@isidoro.unileon.es (Leon, Spain) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Orchard (Paperback)
For three years in a row I have been using this book with my female students. Most of them have asserted that The Orchard changed their lives, as it changed mine when I first read it. The story of the handless maid, which epitomizes the book's message, invites women readers to reflect on issues such as maturity, identity, education, interpersonal relationships, autonomy and self-sufficiency. The magic mixture of essay, narrative, folk tale and biography creates a beautiful and complex tapestry, in which any woman, no matter her age, can recognize herself. Don't miss this opportunity of growing up as a woman and as a human being.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A mesmeric book, neither fiction nor memoir,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Orchard (Paperback)
I came across my copy of this book in a second-hand bookstore in New Zealand. Modjeska is little known in the UK, despite it being her birthplace, but well-respected in Australia. In the years since I discovered this book I have returned to it many times: it is beautifully written, and deals with many themes that recur in my imagination. I think the main issue in the story is the difficulty of claiming a creative space for yourself as a woman, though other readers may disagree. The visual arts feature strongly in the book, as many of the characters are or were artists, or write about art. If you're interested in this aspect of Modjeska's writing, turn next to her book "Stravinsky's Lunch"; if writing itself is more your thing, her book of essays "Timepieces" talks more about her own development as an author.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.5 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews) 6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Life, relationships and intelligent introspection.,
By D. A. Preston "geo6dap" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Orchard (Paperback)
...The Orchard is about a series of issues that recur from place to place in the book: learning from one's past; how women can use their special qualities to advantage even when dominated by a man/men; how a particular event can signify many things when seen in idfferent contexts - the rape of Artemisia Gentileschi, the flowing of the winterbourne, the story of the orchard etc. It also serves as a good precursor to Stravinsky's Lunch to be published shortly in the USA but which I read when it came out in Australia a year ago. Another theme and one that links the two books is the practice of representation through painting and the personal searches and enquiries that lie behind pictures that we see in galleries or in books. The Orchard is one of the most thought-provoking, wise and deeply wordly books that I've read for some time.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Astonishing,
By "blissengine" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Orchard (Paperback)
Modjeska's exquisite novel is told by an unnamed woman who relates her own story, her friends' stories, and the stories of famous women, all woven together to give a greater picture of the lives of women as artists. Virginia Woolf, Stella Bowen, Artemisia Gentileschi, and others are threaded into this vibrant tapestry. The final fable of the princess with the silver hands is actually the single basis of the rest of the book: the idea of women finding their own agency in the world, whether in art or in daily life or in relationships with men and/or women. The language is supple and complex, which might deter some readers seeking light reading, but the sheer beauty of Modjeska's writing seduces and inspires. It's like an essay, but through fiction, as if "A Room of One's Own" were a faerie tale of sorts. "The Orchard" is a powerful book that deserves many visits.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Graceful and Unique,
By L Davies - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Orchard (Paperback)
This is a graceful and unique book that blends fiction with intellectual theory and even biography to explore the themes of agency and self-identity in women's lives. Modjeska's style is unique, using what she calls an essay form to tell the stories of four fictional women characters and such well-known artists and writers as Stella Bowen, Artemisia Gentileschi and Virginia Woolf. Modjeska and her characters discuss such concepts as the formation and preservation of self-identity, with the intellectual theories surrounding these concerns framed, refreshingly, in the context of women's everyday lives. The complexity of this book means it can be read over and over, and I recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone who is interested in sexual politics, art history, relationships, literature - or to anyone who loves an engrossing story, well-developed characters and beautiful language.
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