Jeanette Winterson, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Report an Error

Considered a risky venture,

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

was first published in paperback and even then in a limited run by Pandora Press in 1985. The germ of an idea from an unsuccessful job interview, the novel found a popular market in small-scale booksellers until the award of the Whitbread Prize for the best debut novel (1985) precipitated an order from the major national chain, W. H. Smith (Winterson, 1985: xiii). The novel’s irreverent style of “Northern” humour, and fantasy and lyricism blended with structural experimentation, elicited the famous comment from Gore Vidal that Winterson was “the most interesting young writer I have read in twenty years” (Winterson, 1985). The seeds of her subsequent innovative passion for words and poetic voice are all evident in this…

1666 words

Citation: Cox, Katharine. "Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 April 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3015, accessed 19 March 2024.]

3015 Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.