History Literature / HarvestHome

* NewHouseNewProblems: To be fair, the female Constantines continue to love their new house even after Ned discovers the New Problems.

* SceneryDissonance: Though the darkest scenes ''do'' happen at night, much ink is expended in describing how bright and cheerful the Coombe is, with friendly villagers working in green, sunny cornfields and most of the festivals taking place in the daytime. Contrasting just how [[LovecraftCountry messed up Coombe actually is]].

* TheVamp: Tamar Penrose, who tries to seduce Ned on several occasions.
* WidowsWeeds: True to her widowed status, Widow Fortune always wearing black.

* MenAreBetterThanWomen: Although it turns out to be secretly a {{matriarchy}}, only men are shown with the curiosity or the ability to try to flee Harvest Home and/or figure out the truth...while all the women are weak, lustful, and [[spoiler:willing to murder or maim their husbands so that they can have fertility rituals and be impregnated.]]
* MenAreTheExpendableGender: [[spoiler:The men are either killed or maimed during Harvest Home, both as punishment and both as an inherent part of Harvest Home.]]
* MenAreGenericWomenAreSpecial: Played with. Harvest Home certainly believes this (with Widow Fortune directly saying that men couldn't leave without women and therefore women are more special), but the protagonist is a pretty sexist man who aggressively believes the opposite.

* TheVamp: Tamor, who tries to seduce Ned on several occasions.

* LovecraftCountry: Cornwall Coombe is in rural Massachusetts, surrounded by woodland, and [[spoiler:a group of murderous hillbillies.]]

* AllWomenAreLustful: [[spoiler:All of the women are sex-crazy and willing to kill people and maim their husbands to make sure it happens, although this is probably because of pregnancy.]] Tamar is just the most obvious example.

But Cornwall Coombe harbors strange secrets. Life revolves around seasonal rituals, starting with the crowning of a community "Harvest King" and culminating every seven years in the mysterious "Harvest Home." The village leader [[SignificantName Widow Fortune]] is a warm, welcoming woman, beloved by all...yet her word is law, and she decides who gets to stay in the Coombe, who becomes an outcast, what parts of the Coombe are forbidden, and--as Ned learns to his horror--who lives and who dies. Ned begins to suspect that as newcomers, his wife and daughter are in danger from upcoming Harvest Home...but he has no idea of the true horror that awaits in the ritual that ''"no man may see nor woman tell."''

* DaylightHorror: Though the darkest scenes ''do'' happen at night, much ink is expended in describing how bright and cheerful the Coombe is, with friendly villagers working in green, sunny cornfields and most of the festivals taking place in the daytime.

If the premise sounds a little familiar, one of the stranger bits of trivia behind ''Harvest Home'' was that it was written at the same time ''[[Film/TheWickerMan1973 The Wicker Man]]'' was in production, and the two were released within months of one other, yet neither Tryon nor ''The Wicker Man'' director Robin Hardy were aware of one another.

* LovableSexManiac: The townsfolk seem to be surprisingly tolerant of Tamar. Maybe it helps that she's the mother of the town prophet, or maybe [[spoiler:rampant female sexual aggressiveness is a bit more acceptable in a fertility cult.]] However, this is in-universe only, as Tamar herself is constantly viewed as aggressive and unpleasant by Ned.

* MenAreGenericWomenAreSpecial: Played with. Harvest Home certainly believes this (with Widow Fortune directly saying that men couldn't leave without women and therefore women are more special), but as the protagonist is a pretty sexist man who aggressively believes the opposite.

But Cornwall Coombe harbors strange secrets. Life revolves around seasonal rituals, starting with the crowning of a community "Harvest King" and culminating every seven years in the mysterious "Harvest Home." The village leader [[SignificantName Widow Fortune]] is a warm, welcoming woman, beloved by all...yet her word is law, and she decides who gets to stay in the Coombe, who becomes an outcast, what parts of the Coombe are forbidden and--as Ned learns to his horror--who lives and who dies. Ned begins to suspect that as newcomers, his wife and daughter are in danger from upcoming Harvest Home...but he has no idea of the true horror that awaits in the ritual that ''"no man may see nor woman tell."''

* AdaptationalNameChange: In the made-for-tv film, Ned's name becomes Nick.

!''Harvest Home'' contains examples of the following tropes:

* WidowsWeeds: True to her widowed status, Widow Fortune always wearing black.

* AwesomeMcCoolName: Not the people so much as the place names: Cornwall Coombe and Soakes' Lonesome (to the point that [[AGoodNameForARockBand Soakes' Lonesome is the name of a real-world band]]). Likewise the names of the seasonal festivals--Agnes Fair, Harvest Home--tend to be cool and mysterious.

Ned Constantine, his wife Beth, and their daughter Kate are slowly growing apart in their [[BigRottenApple big-city life]] after [[LawOfInverseFertility Beth's tragic miscarriage]] and her subsequent aversion to sex leads Ned to infidelity. The tension between them aggravates Kate's psychosomatic asthma to life-threatening levels so that she can no longer participate in activities she once loved, which only makes things even more miserable for all of them. Their lives seem to be back on the upswing when an UnexpectedInheritance allows them to purchase [[BigFancyHouse a beautiful home]] in the [[TownWithADarkSecret quaint Connecticut village]] of [[AlliterativeName Cornwall Coombe]], a place where time seems to have stood still. In Cornwall Coombe, Kate's health mends and Beth's depression vanishes as they become more and more drawn into village life.

But Cornwall Coombe harbors strange secrets. Life revolves around seasonal rituals, starting with the crowning of a community "Harvest King" culminating every seven years in the mysterious "Harvest Home." The village leader, [[SignificantName Widow Fortune]], is a warm, welcoming woman, beloved by all...yet her word is law, and she decides who gets to stay in the Coombe, who becomes an outcast, what parts of the Coombe are forbidden and--as Ned learns to his horror--who lives and who dies. Ned begins to suspect that as newcomers, his wife and daughter are in danger from upcoming Harvest Home...but he has no idea of the true horror that awaits in the ritual that ''"no man may see nor woman tell."''

Ned Constantine, his wife Beth, and their daughter Kate are slowly growing apart in their [[BigRottenApple big-city life]] after [[LawOfInverseFertility Beth's tragic miscarriage]] and her subsequent aversion to sex leads Ned [[YourCheatingHeart to infidelity]]. The tension between them aggravates Kate's psychosomatic asthma to life-threatening levels so that she can no longer participate in activities she once loved, which only makes things even more miserable for all of them. Their lives seem to be back on the upswing when an UnexpectedInheritance allows them to purchase [[BigFancyHouse a beautiful home]] in the [[TownWithADarkSecret quaint Connecticut village]] of [[AlliterativeName Cornwall Coombe]], a place where time seems to have stood still. In Cornwall Coombe, Kate's health mends and Beth's depression vanishes as they become more and more drawn into village life.

Adapted into a MadeForTVMovie in 1978 (as ''The Dark Secret of Harvest Home'') with Creator/BetteDavis as the Widow Fortune.

'''''Harvest Home''''' is a 1973 horror-suspense novel by Thomas Tryon, about a TownWithADarkSecret.

If it all [[Film/TheWickerMan1973 sounds a little familiar]], one of the stranger bits of trivia behind ''Harvest Home'' was that it was written at the same time ''The Wicker Man'' was in production, and the two were released within months of one other, yet neither Tryon nor ''The Wicker Man'' director Robin Hardy were aware of one another.

* MenAreTheExpendableGender: [[spoiler:The men are either killed or maimed during Harvest Home, both as punishment and both as an inherent part of Harvest Home.]]

* LovableSexManiac: The townsfolk seem to be surprisingly tolerant of Tamar. Maybe it helps that she's the mother of the town prophet, or maybe [[spoiler:rampant female sexual aggressiveness is a bit more acceptable in a fertility cult.]]

Ned Constantine, his wife Beth, and their teenage daughter Kate are slowly growing apart in their [[BigRottenApple big-city life]] after [[LawOfInverseFertility Beth's tragic miscarriage]] and her subsequent aversion to sex leads Ned [[YourCheatingHeart to infidelity]]. The tension between them aggravates Kate's psychosomatic asthma to life-threatening levels so that she can no longer participate in activities she once loved, which only makes things even more miserable for all of them. Their lives seem to be back on the upswing when an UnexpectedInheritance allows them to purchase [[BigFancyHouse a beautiful home]] in the [[TownWithADarkSecret quaint Connecticut village]] of [[AlliterativeName Cornwall Coombe]], a place where time seems to have stood still. In Cornwall Coombe, Kate's health mends and Beth's depression vanishes as they become more and more drawn into village life.

* AntiquatedLinguistics: The people of the Coombe still speak with the slightly stilted Welsh accents and dialect of the village's original founders.

Ned Constantine, his wife Beth, and their teenage daughter Kate are slowly growing apart in their [[BigRottenApple big-city life]] after [[LawOfInverseFertility Beth's tragic miscarriage]] and her subsequent aversion to sex leads Ned [[YourCheatingHeart to infidelity]]. The tension between them aggravates Kate's psychosomatic asthma to life-threatening levels so that she can no longer participate in activities she once loved, which only makes things even more miserable for all of them. Their lives seem to be back on the upswing when a windfall inheritance allows them to purchase [[BigFancyHouse a beautiful home]] in the quaint Connecticut village of [[AlliterativeName Cornwall Coombe]], a place where time seems to have stood still. In Cornwall Coombe, Kate's health mends and Beth's depression vanishes as they become more and more drawn into village life.

But Cornwall Coombe has strange secrets. Life revolves around seasonal rituals, culminating in the mysterious "Harvest Home." The village leader, [[SignificantName Widow Fortune]], is a warm, welcoming woman, beloved by all...yet her word is law, and she decides who gets to stay in the Coombe, who becomes an outcast, what parts of the Coombe are forbidden and--as Ned learns to his horror--who lives and who dies. Ned begins to suspect that as newcomers, his wife and daughter are in danger from upcoming Harvest Home...but he has no idea of the true horror that awaits in the ritual that ''"no man may see nor woman tell."''

* LovableSexManiac: The townsfolk seem to be surprisingly tolerant of Tamar. Maybe it helps that she's the mother of the town prophet, or maybe [[spoiler:rampant female sexual aggressiveness is a bit more acceptable in a fertility cult.]]

* MouthSewnShut: The punishment for talking about Harvest Home...and it's actually the ''lesser'' of the punishments. [[spoiler: Men who actually ''see'' the rituals have their eyes removed ''and'' their tongues cut out.]]

* WomanInBlack: True to her widowed status, Widow Fortune always wearing black.

* KindheartedSimpleton: Justin Hooke is a simple man who loves the land and his wife, pretty much in that order, and doesn't seem to have a mean bone in his big dumb body.

Ned Constantine, his wife Beth, and their teenage daughter Kate are slowly growing apart in their [[BigRottenApple big-city life]] after [[LawOfInverseFertility Beth's tragic miscarriage]] and her subsequent aversion to sex leads Ned [[YourCheatingHeart to infidelity]]. The tension between them aggravates Kate's psychosomatic asthma to life-threatening levels so that she can no longer participate in activities she once loved, which only makes things even more miserable for all of them. Their lives seem to be back on the upswing when a windfall inheritance allows them to purchase a beautiful home in the quaint Connecticut village of Cornwall Coombe, a place where time seems to have stood still. In Cornwall Coombe, Kate's health mends and Beth's depression vanishes as they become more and more drawn into village life.

* AwesomeMcCoolName: Not the people so much as the place names: Cornwall Coombe and Soakes' Lonesome (to the point that [[AGoodNameForARockBand Soakes' Lonesome is the name of a real-world band]]).

* RepressiveButEfficient: The Coombe ain't much for your fancy book-larnin' or modern technology, and there are brutal punishments for those who go against The Ways (being shunned is probably the ''best'' outcome), but the majority of villagers are genuinely content, generous, and kind.