The Enchanted Fruit

"The Enchanted Fruit" is a short story by Ramsey Campbell that appears in his 1975 collection Demons by Daylight. It takes place in Campbell's Severn Valley setting, with scenes in Brichester and in the woods near Goatswood.
==Synopsis==
The plot involves Derek, a Brichester librarian, who retreat from "the daily press of Brichester, the false harsh rainbow of packed cars", into the woods near Goatswood. At first he finds them enticing--"Each corridor of trees seemed made to be explored, each green shadow promised mystery"--and later forbidding; "A screen of leaves seemed secretive; parted, it revealed only vistas of dim branches." In the forest, he finds a tree whose "rich trunk, dark yet warm, stood alone on a mound of autumn built high from the edge of the glade;" he eats the fruit of this tree, "large as apples, soft and shaped as peaches", to his immediate delight and eventual regret.
Category:Expanded Mythos Works
Category:Ramsey Campbell works