The Keeper of the Bees (Library of Indiana Classics) [Paperback]

Gene Stratton-Porter (Author)

Book Description

Series: Library of Indiana Classics | Publication Date: October 22, 1991

Set in the author's adopted home of California in the 1920s, this is Gene Stratton-Porter's last novel, a story filled with wisdom, a love of nature, and her own abiding optimism. In it a Master Bee Keeper, his bees, and the natural beauty of California restore a wounded World War I veteran to health.

Product Details

• Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: Indiana University Press (October 22, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 025320691X
• ISBN-13: 978-0253206916
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #215,887 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Keeper of the Bees, January 31, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Keeper of the Bees (Library of Indiana Classics) (Paperback)

As a teenager, I balked at my mother's suggestion of reading the old book which was falling apart at the seams. Much to my surprise, I actually enjoyed "The Keeper of the Bees" and I'm looking forward to reading other books by Gene Stratton-Porter. This story is of an injured soldier who runs away from the best hospitals the military could offer and escapes to the beach to die. Much to his surprise, rather than relying on others constantly, he finds himself helping others throughout his journey. This experience helps improve his health both mentally and physically. This is an excellent book for readers of all ages and a must for the home library collection.

38 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The kind of book that heals a weary mind, October 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Keeper of the Bees (Library of Indiana Classics) (Paperback)

My first reading of Keeper of the Bees was on my grandmother's back porch in the early 60's. When I asked for the book a few years later, she had donated it to her local library. As a parent, I began searching for Gene Stratton Porter books as I traveled, because I wanted to share them with my daughters. Some were easy to find, others were quite difficult. Keeper of the Bees was the most difficult, and it was several years before I found a copy--a first edition. It was like being on my grandparent's sleeping porch all over again. I read it and then read it to my family on a long road trip. Mrs. Porter didn't write a sequel because she was killed the same year this book was released. It was in a car accident in California, where she had moved because she was involved in producing several movies of her stories. Unfortuntely, those early movies seem to have disappeared. There's a recent G. S. P. autobiography, and a PBS special on her life. I've collected all of her fiction, but her naturalist books are beyond my pocketbook... selling for $400 and up. This is an author worth pursing.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Bees" is a Keeper, August 25, 2000

By 

Steven Fantina (Phillipsburg, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Keeper of the Bees (Library of Indiana Classics) (Paperback)

Reading "Keeper of the Bees" is a very sensual experience. When the action takes place in the Bee Master's garden I was tempted to actually pick some of the blue flowers. There were times when I was certain that I was smelling the salt air as I heard the Pacific's Ocean's waves crash on the sandy beach. And when the scene shifted to the apiary, it took a concerted effort not to recoil as the swarms worked their magic, and of course I craved the delicious honey fresh out of the hive.

The wholesome adventure involves a slowly recovering World War I veteran who runs away from the hospital to die in the tranquility of the California's coastal countenance, but instead finds redemption by coming to the aid of an assortment of fleshed-out characters.

While the book is a beneficial read, I had a few structural complaints. At times Mrs. Stratten-Porter's style seemed haphazard and in isolated incidents, I was delayed by choppy sentence structure. The departure of the Brunsons--minor characters relevant only to the early chapters--seemed disturbingly abrupt, and the presence of the androgynous Little Scout will no doubt be deliberately misinterpreted today in ways that the author never intended 75 years ago. Winnowing 50-100 of its 500+ pages seemed like a feasible option that could have dulcified the work.

Tragically, Mrs. Stratten-Porter did not live to see this book's publication. (Perhaps her untimely death prevented the final proofread which may have assuaged the mechanical drawbacks I referenced.) It was a posthumous swan song that capped her palmy career. Based on this beneficent tale, I am very interested in exploring some of her earlier efforts.