HAPPY LIFE AS A WIDOWERīuzz doesn’t miss his wife. Midge always martyred herself, apparently, sighing and stropping about the manor, insinuating that Buzz wasn’t pulling his weight. From that, I’ve fleshed out the dead wife as a wearer of fawn cardigans, long woollen skirts and lace-up flats. This adjective describes the tree and also describes midge. The word ‘stooped’ is doing a lot of work. Although she died only three months back, he’s glad to see the back of her. It’s like the tree is made of her somehow. When Buzz looks out his bathroom window and sees the apple tree, bent and thin and bare, Buzz thinks of Midge. (I’m guessing this large house and grounds could be somewhere like Sussex?) White man, inherited wealth, jobs for the boys, high salary… I have the archetype. Now retired, Buzz once worked in The City. However, Daphne du Maurier turns him into an Every Man archetype of his class by not giving us his real name. I’ll call the man Buzz because that’s what his wife called him when they were newlyweds. While shaving, an unnamed widower looks out at a stooped apple tree in his yard and remembers his wife, Midge, who died just three months earlier. The story opens at the tail end of winter. (These days the collection is published as The Birds and Other Stories.) But look at these beautiful covers WHAT HAPPENS IN “THE APPLE TREE”? SETTING (In case you missed it, I cannot stand “Rip Van Winkle.”)īefore Hitchcock adapted “ The Birds” for film, the collection was named after this story. This is “Rip Van Winkle” for people who wish Rip Van Winkle karked it instead of his long-suffering wife. But who doesn’t like a Christmas ghost story? There’s not much ‘Christmassy’ about it if, by Christmassy, you think family, fun and celebration of Christ.
“The Apple Tree” is a long short story by British author Daphne du Maurier, better known for “ The Birds” and Rebecca.
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