A young Emmeline Curlew (Emmeline Fox in the novel) writes to cotton farmers in America asking them to free their slaves in Chocolate Hearts From The New World, to which, quite by surprise, she receives a selection of confectionary with an accompanying letter in response. Some of the minor characters from The Crimson Petal and the White also muscle in on some of the action. They say little for the character of Sugar, or for the collection.
Both of these stories are simple snapshots, and twee to boot. The other, The Apple, shows Sugar becoming annoyed by a missionary's treatment of her child, an event that inspires Sugar's later scribblings in The Crimson Petal and the White. Christmas on Silver Street shows her as a tart with a heart as she introduces Christopher, the son of a prostitute in the brother where they work, to Christmas. There are two stories about Miss Sugar, the whore, both of which look at her past. Two of the stories ( Christmas on Silver Street and Chocolate Hearts from the New World) have previously been published, with the remainder written especially for this collection. As such, it will probably be only of interest to devout fans of the original novel. Unfortunately, it would seem The Apple: New Crimson Petal Stories is more of a cashcow between novels for Faber than anything else. There will be no sequel, Faber states, but he does offer this further set of tales which should shed some light on some of the characters. In the foreword the author refers to letters from fans from all walks of life asking what happened next, only to have their questions subverted. So now, to The Apple, a meagre collection of short stories from Faber that, four years later, returns to the world of The Crimson Petal and the White. And it would seem that many didn't want to guess: they wanted to know they wanted closure. With the book ending the way it did, it left readers the world over to guess at what happens next. Set in Victorian London and using postmodern techniques, the novel, I would like to think, is one of the best published this century.
Not so, however, with Michel Faber's The Crimson Petal and the White, an 835 page blend of sheer enjoyment and frustration. Usually when coming to the end of a book of brick-like proportions, it's good that the story is over.
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