Synopses & Reviews
This collection of classic garden writing presents the garden as place of solace in our busy world, a retreat for lovers, and even an earthly paradise. Bringing together a wide range of voices from across the centuries and around the globeand#151;from Pliny in first-century Italy to Robert Louis Stevenson in nineteenth-century Hawaiiand#151;
Pleasures of the Garden features fiction and poetry, memoirs and letters, all in celebration of gardens. The gardens themselves vary widely, too, including the stately landscaped parks of Georgian England, the exquisitely managed gardens of Japan, and the painterly gardens of the Arts and Crafts movement. At times lyrical and light-hearted, at others analytic or inspirational, the works compiled here from such authors as Jane Austen, Rudyard Kipling, Charlotte Brontand#235;, Alexander Pope, D. H. Lawrence, and many more reveal that gardens have long nurtured much more than the plants they containand#151;their peace, order, and seclusion also have a long tradition of inspiring the pen and fueling the soul.
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Our backyard gardens may not compare with the long-lost Hanging Gardens of Babylon, but Pleasures of the Garden reminds us that they are nonetheless part of a long and storied tradition. No green thumb should be without it.
Synopsis
A companion to The RHS Treasure of Garden Verse, this anthology presents a selection of garden writing spanning the globe and the centuries. Writers from Francis Bacon to Thoreau, Jane Austen to Karel Capek have been inspired by gardens and gardening, and here there is something for everyone classic pieces and perennial favourites, and some surprising finds. Each piece is illustrated with a botanical print, and engraving or a watercolor drawing from the remarkable collection of the Royal Horticultural Society's Lindley Library. This is the only illustrated book of garden writing on the market making it an ideal gift book, appealing to lovers of literature and gardening. It showcases some of the most beautiful artwork from the enormous range of material in the RHS Lindley Library.
Synopsis
This collection of classic garden writing celebrates the garden as a place of solace in a busy world, a retreat for lovers and an earthly paradise. Gardens have been cherished in all times and cultures, and this anthology reveals a wide range of voices, from the classic to the little-known, the lyrical to the light-hearted. Fiction and poetry inspired by gardens and#150; from The Secret Garden to the poems of Rudyard Kipling and#150; are featured alongside letters and memoirs about the real gardens created and enjoyed by some of the worldand#8217;s greatest writers. The anthology threads its way from ancient Egypt to English suburbia, from Pliny in first-century Italy to Robert Louis Stevenson in nineteenth-century Hawaii. It admires a wide array of gardens, from the stately landscaped parks of Georgian England and the exquisitely artificial gardens of Japan to the painterly Arts and Crafts gardens of Gertrude Jekyll.
About the Author
Christina Hardyment is the author of Writing Britain: Wastelands to Wonderlands, also published by the British Library, among other books, and reviews regularly for the Times (UK) and Independent.
Table of Contents
Introduction
1.and#160; Lovers of Gardens and Lovers in Gardens
Paradise Made (Genesis) John Gerard
Homeward Tao Yuan Ming
Bright Green and Lush (Romance of the Rose)
The Air of Paradise Hafez
Purest of Human Pleasures Francis Bacon
A Brood of Nightingales Willliam Lawson
Innocent Delights Joseph Addison
Syringa Ivory Pure William Cowper
We Talk Also of a Laburnum Jane Austen
The Pride of my Heart MaryRussell Milford
How Little One Wants Gertrude Jekyll
Enjoy Thyself a Day ('Tale of the Garden of Flowersand#8217;, ancient Egypt)and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
A Garden Enclosed (Song of Solomon)
The Lusty Month of May Thomas Malory
A Garden Fair by Musicand#8217;s Tower Stephen Hawes
Make Me a Mandrake John Donne
No Nook More Eden-Like Charlotte Brontand#235;
The Planet of Love is on High Alfred Tennyson
The Cap and Bells WilliamButler Yeats
2. Grand Designs
An Abundance of Brimstone Diodorus Siculus
The Blue Fig with Luscious Juice Oand#8217;erflows Homer
All is Calm and Composed Pliny the Younger
The Pleasant Whisking Wind Robert Laneham
A Princelike Garden Francis Bacon
The Shalimar Bagh Constance Villiers-Stuart
The Genius of the Place Alexander Pope
A Labyrinth of My Own Raising Joseph Addison
The Horticultural Xenophobe Tobias Smollett
In the Hands of the Improvers Jane Austen
The Simplest Way William Morris
No Plan of Any Kind William Robinson
Tears of Ecstasy Reginald Farrer
A Garden of Sweet Scents Gertrude Jekyll
3. Practical Gardening
Whatever Had the Most Blooms Bai Juyi
A Full Dung Barrow Walafrid Strabo
Nosegays and Posies John Gerard
Bring Your Orange Trees Boldly Out John Evelyn
Vegetable Pride Erasmus Darwin
Gross Fog Boeotian William Cowper
Snapdragons Blooming Thomas Jefferson
A Bachelor of Husbandry Philip Yorke
Well Stricken in Years Robert Louis Stevenson
They Gardened in Bloomers (Punch magazine)
A Cast-Iron Back with a Hinge in It Charles Dudley Warner
Being Entirely Ignorant Elizabeth von Arnim
The Unkindest Cut SamuelReynolds Hole
Grubbing Weeds from Garden-paths with Broken Dinner-knives Rudyard Kipling
The Actual Tools Gertrude Jekyll
The Smokeand#8217;s Smell Edward Thomas
4. Solace for Body and Soul
The Belly of the Dragon (Japanese gardens)
Your Leaves are Always at His Lotus Feet (Bhagavata Purana)
Invisible Wisdom John Gerard
Clad in Tattered Dervish Rags Baqi
A Pleasing Savour of Sweet Instructions John Parkinson
Killing and Quickening George Herbert
Fresh and Spruce Henry King
A Green Thought in a Green Shade Andrew Marvell
Slow but Sure John Bunyan
Human Grandeur is Very Dangerous Voltaire
Prostate Peas Henry Jones
Good Taste and Not a Gaudy Pride John Clare
Paying Back the Garden Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Roses and Lovers AlgernonCharles Swinburne
Manifest Autobiography Alfred Austin
Persevere! HelenaRutherford Eli
It Isnand#8217;t Quite a Dead Garden Frances Hodgson Burnett
A Nation of Gardeners Avray Tipping
Even God Would Have to Have a Nose D. H. Lawrence
Egoistic Reverie William Cowper; Edmund Gosse; Forbes Sieveking
Envoi: Ferned Grot T. E. Brown
List of Illustrations
Index of Authors
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