Cider with Rosie
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What is 'Cider with Rosie'?
Cider with Rosie, published in 1959, is an autobiographical novel by Laurie Lee that depicts his childhood in a secluded Cotswolds village in Gloucestershire following World War I. The book evokes a vanished rural world with simplicity and innocence. It was followed by two more volumes, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning and A Moment of War, forming an autobiographical trilogy. Cider with Rosie is known for its lush descriptions and comic episodes, balanced with a sense of tragedy as village life transitions with modernity. Despite lacking formal education, Lee's masterful writing made the book a classic, adapted into film three times.
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Who wrote 'Cider with Rosie'?
Cider with Rosie is an autobiographical novel by Laurie Lee published in 1959. The book is an account of Lee’s childhood in a secluded village in the Cotswolds of Gloucestershire after World War I and evokes the simplicity of a rural world. It was followed by two more volumes: As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning and A Moment of War.
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What is the main setting of 'Cider with Rosie'?
Cider with Rosie, by Laurie Lee, is set in the idyllic, isolated village of Slad in the Cotswolds of Gloucestershire. The autobiographical novel depicts Lee's childhood in the early 20th century, immediately after World War I. The book evokes a vanished rural world, where transport was limited to horse and cart and few ventured far from home. Though the setting is marvelous, the home lacks running water, indoor plumbing, and electricity, and there is commonplace brutality to country living. Despite this, there is a sense of tradition and belonging.
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What time period does the story of 'Cider with Rosie' take place in?
Cider with Rosie, an autobiographical novel by Laurie Lee, is set in the Cotswolds of Gloucestershire immediately after World War I. The book depicts life in a small, isolated English village in the early part of the 20th century, evoking a vanished rural world before technological change. It describes a time when transport was limited to horse and cart, and people rarely traveled far from home. Published in 1959, the book became an instant classic, widely read in British schools.
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Which important themes are found in 'Cider with Rosie'?
Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee is a nostalgic autobiographical novel that depicts the author’s idyllic childhood in the Cotswolds of Gloucestershire following World War I. The book evokes the simplicity and innocence of a vanished rural world amid technological change. Lee masterfully captures the lushness of the cottage garden through a child’s eyes. While many episodes are comic, there's also a sense of tragedy, as the certainty and routine of village life disappear. Despite lacking modern conveniences, the protagonist's mother maintains her longing for greater things. Lee doesn't romanticize country life, acknowledging its brutality, which is counterbalanced by a sense of tradition and belonging that has disappeared with modernity.
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How does 'Cider with Rosie' describe changes in village life and society?
Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee depicts the changes in village life and society in the Cotswolds of Gloucestershire immediately after World War I. The book evokes a vanished rural world amid technological change, portraying a world where transport was limited, and reasons to travel were few. The story also shows a sense of tragedy, as the certainty and routine that once controlled village life have now vanished. Despite the marvels found in the fields, the lack of running water, indoor plumbing, or electricity, and the commonplace brutality of country living, there is a sense of tradition and belonging that has disappeared as modernity has spread.
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Cider with Rosie, autobiographical novel by Laurie Lee (1914–1997), published in 1959. An account of the author’s idyllic childhood in an isolated village in the Cotswolds of Gloucestershire immediately after World War I, the book was an instant classic, widely read in British schools. The book nostalgically evokes the simplicity and innocence of a vanished rural world amid the swirl of technological change and was followed by two more volumes in what became an autobiographical trilogy, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning (1969), a description of Lee’s trip to London to seek his fortune, and A Moment of War (1991), an account of his experiences in Spain during that country’s civil war.
An extremely vivid description of the author’s life in a small English village, Slad, in the early part of the 20th century, Cider With Rosie depicts a world that was soon to vanish: a world where transport was limited to the horse and cart, and where there were few reasons to travel away from one’s home. What is perhaps most remarkable about it, and has kept it a firm readers’ favorite since it was first published, is the rich lushness of the description. The cottage garden, for example, as seen through the eyes and other senses of a young child, becomes a world of its own. Many of the episodes are also richly comic, yet there is also a sense of tragedy, a sense that the certainty and routine that once controlled village life have now vanished. The protagonist’s mother, abandoned by her husband with two families and seven children to cope with, leads a life of extraordinary drudgery, yet her longing for, and recognition of, the greater things in life rarely falters.
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Most of all, perhaps, Lee, known in the book by his childhood nickname Lol, makes no attempt to prettify country life; although there are marvelous things to be found in the fields and hedgerows, their home lacks running water, indoor plumbing, or electricity, and there is also a commonplace brutality to country living, including incest, violent sexual relations, and even murder. The counterbalance to this is the sense of tradition, of belonging, which has disappeared as modernity has spread to the most distant places of England and the world at large.
Although he lacked a formal education, Lee was a masterful writer and the author of many celebrated books, including five volumes of poetry. Cider with Rosie, however, remains his best-known work. It has been filmed three times, the first in 1971, the second in 1998, and the third in 2015, each drawing on a screenplay written by Lee himself. The Laurie Lee Wildlife Way and several nature reserves, administered by the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, preserve much of the author’s beloved Slad Valley, the setting for his book.