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Cider with Rosie Paperback – April 1, 2008

by Laurie Lee (Author)

4.1 3,775 ratings

Book 1 of 3: The Autobiographical Trilogy

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The wonderfully charming and poignant memoir of youth in a rural English village―and a fatherless family―set against the backdrop of the Great War.

Cider with Rosie is the classic memoir of growing up in a remote Gloucestershire village, a world that Laurie Lee makes tangibly real even as it’s now in a distant past. Abandoned by her husband, Laurie’s adoring mother becomes the center of his world as she struggles to raise a family on her own. The center of his world, that is, until he meets someone very special...

I turned to look at Rosie. She was yellow and dusty with buttercups and seemed to be purring in the gloom; her hair was rich as a wild bee’s nest and her eyes were full of stings. I did not know what to do about her, nor did I know what not to do. She looked smooth and precious, a thing of unplumbable mysteries, and perilous as quicksand.

The sophisticated adult author’s retrospective commentary on events is endearingly juxtaposed with that of the innocent, spotty youth, permanently prone to tears and self-absorption. Cider with Rosie became an instant bestseller when it was published in 1959, selling over six million copies in the UK alone, and continues to be read all over the world.

Book 1 of 3

The Autobiographical Trilogy
Print length

212 pages
Language

English
Publisher

David R. Godine, Publisher
Publication date

April 1, 2008
Dimensions

5.57 x 0.66 x 8.49 inches
ISBN-10

1567923550
ISBN-13

978-1567923551
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From the Publisher

Classic memoirs and autobiographical fiction from Godine, Publisher


The Country of the Pointed Fir Set in a small, coastal town in Maine, this enduring sequence of intimate stories has assumed its rightful place in the pantheon of American literature.	Cider with Rosie A charming memoir of Laurie Lee's youth in a remote Gloucestershire village, a world that he makes tangibly real even as it's now in a distant past.	Lark Rise to Candleford Flora Thompson’s great memoir of her Oxfordshire girlhood—and the quintessential distillation of English country life at the turn of the twentieth century.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Cider with Rosie

“A remarkable book written with such dazzling verbal imagery and such relish in all the sensations of being alive that it is magically contagious.”
—New York Times

“Remains as fresh and full of joy and gratitude for youth and its sensations as when it first appeared. It sings in the memory.”
—The Sunday London Times

From the Back Cover

A wonderfully vivid memoir of Laurie Lee's childhood and youth in a remote Cotswold village.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ David R. Godine, Publisher (April 1, 2008)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 212 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1567923550
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1567923551
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.57 x 0.66 x 8.49 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #143,013 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #124 in England History
- #530 in Author Biographies
- #4,450 in Memoirs (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.1 3,775 ratings

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Kindle Customer

A classic of autobiography

Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2017

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This is Laurie Lee’s love letter to the Cotswolds’ and his impoverished though rich childhood - a memoir filled with one memorable vignette after another. The trials and tribulations, the larks and adventures are all brought vividly to life by Lee, whose writing style is extravagantly evocative and assured. One feels transported, a voyeur or witness to a bygone place and era. I read with a smile and laughed several times – especially when mother would hold up the bus while she rinsed out her scarf or looked for her shoes [there is someone in my life very much like this]. I was often moved by the poignant depiction of melancholy events, never more so than by the death of his sister. Here is an excerpt:

“It was soon after this that my sister Frances died. She was a beautiful, fragile, dark-curled child, and my Morher’s only daughter. Though only four, she used to watch me like a nurse, sitting all day beside my cot and talking softly in a special language. Nobody noticed that she was dying herself, they were too much concerned with me. She died suddenly, silently, without complaint, in a chair in the corner of the room. An ignorant death which need never have happened – and I believe that she gave me her life.”

I loved the scenes at the village school. The country festivals. The story of all his uncles. Cider with Rosie under the wagon. Most of all I hated the father and wanted terrible things to happen to him for abandoning his family, and yet the mother’s reaction to his death and the horrible realization that her fantasies that he'd return and they’d spend their final days together were finally and forever torn asunder…well, I just wanted to fold her up in my arms and let her mourn all her dashed dreams.

I’ve read a number of very fine books this year, and this is one of the best.

18 people found this helpful

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Ms. L.

I admit I didn’t know if it was love or hate

Reviewed in the United States on June 30, 2015

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When I opened the email last month, it was clear I’d missed out. According to Amazon’s Daily Deal blurb Laurie Lee’s Cider With Rosie was “an instant classic when it was first published in 1959 [and] one of the most endearing and evocative portraits of youth in all of literature”. Now because I worked for several years in a book store, I’m at Cider With Rosieleast familiar with many more titles and authors than I’ve read. So one would think I’d at least heard of this Laurie Lee who “learned to look at life with a painter’s eye and a poet’s heart—qualities of vision that, decades later, would make him one of England’s most cherished authors”.

Of course, I had to remedy this oversight, so one-click order I did and was soon settled into a memoir of one of England’s beloved sons I hadn’t even known existed. But after the first chapter, I admit I didn’t know if it was love or hate.

Three-year-old Laurie sits on the floor of his new home amidst the chaos of moving a family of seven into a new cottage in the village of Slad. Little Laurie was surrounded by “glass fishes, china dogs, shepherds and shepherdesses, bronze horsemen, stopped clocks, barometers, and photographs of bearded men”. His sisters and mother bustle in and out of the house; his brothers help unload the handcart. Lee’s prose was over-rich, I thought—awash in adjectives and adverbs; drowning in lists. I almost put the memoir aside.

But after another chapter, Lee grew on me. His rich narrative seemed to mirror the lush countryside and the hub-bub that was his home. I settled into those lists and that descriptive prose. Like this: “That kitchen, worn by our boots and lives, was scruffy, warm, and low, whose fuss of furniture seemed never the same but was shuffled each day” and this: “These were the … rocks of our submarine life, each object worn smooth by our constant nuzzling, or encrusted by lively barnacles, relics of birthdays and dead relations, wrecks of furniture long since foundered …” It’s definitely not my style and not what I’d usually choose, but I’m happy I did.

Cider With Rosie let me peek into a world that no longer exists—grannies who lived as neighbors for decades, yet

Rosebank Cottage, Slad
Rosebank Cottage, Slad
never spoke; sisters who decorated their hats with bits and bobs; a picnic caravanned to a just perfect spot in the woods; a school teacher quick to smack boys upside the head; sleeping five to a room in quilt-deep beds; a bottle of shared cider and a stolen kiss under a field wagon.

Lee went on to write two more memoirs of his life and a few books of poetry. I was able to find a wonderful interview with Lee on the BBC—his recollections follow the book closely—which makes a great companion listen.

Cider With Rosie should probably be read when the time is just right, like a hazy summer afternoon or a blustery winter night … or anytime, really, when the edges of the world outside become blurred and you could oh-so-easily fade into the English countryside.
[read more at thisismysymphony.net]

60 people found this helpful

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Serena

Maybe a Kindle Isn't the Best Way to Read this Amazing Book

Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2017

Verified Purchase

I read this wonderful book on my Kindle, but was very unpleasantly surprised and disappointed when the book ended at 80%. A couple of the reviews mentioned passages that weren't in my Kindle version I guess I am going to have to get the hard copy to see what I missed. Or, perhaps I am the one who didn't download the update for this book--if there is one.

I am not usually one who notices how words are put together when I read a book. However, in Cider with Rosie I couldn't help but feel how the most perfect words and phrases were chosen for almost every paragraph. Scenes were created in my mind that made me almost feel I was there about 100 years ago. My heart broke for Laurie Lee's mother who never doubted her husband would come back to her--until she heard he was dead.

How wonderful there are more books in this series. I have them all on my Kindle, but am not sure about reading further Lee books on that device.

13 people found this helpful

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JAK

Merrie Olde England on its Last Legs

Reviewed in the United States on July 23, 2015

Verified Purchase

Cider reminded me that all books shouldn't be read in the same manner.I started reading this word for word and line for line,It didn't work! I was so bored , I almost abandoned the book.That would have been too bad because it's worthwhile.So I started skimming , big time. That allowed me to carry on.It is a lyrical and at times interesting book.It's simply not as interesting as Laurie Lee imagined.

This is a memoir(probably highly fictionalized) of the authors childhood in rural England in the 1910s and 1920s. Lee has a thesis , village life was collapsing with the coming of modernity and he was one of the last to witness what was more or less old rural England.Some of his observations on this are interesting.His "lyricism" does get the better of him.At certain points ,I knew I'd had enough and turned the skimming machine on.Lee seems to substitute"lyricism" for thought.You get a little sentimental leftism but not much analysis and actually not much emotion.Lee strikes me as a shallow sort with certain artistic gifts.

The kindle edition also includes a long excerpt form his next memoir about going to London and then Spain.Moderately interesting and similar to CIDER.

4 people found this helpful

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