The Pursuit of Paradise - Hardcover

Brown, Jane

3.58

19 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0002558440 ISBN 13: 9780002558440

Publisher: HarperCollins, 1999

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

This book will provide a new perspective on the way we garden, why we garden and what it means for us.

Full of fascinating characters and vignettes – from ancient Greeks to suffragettes, from eccentric military men to Catholics in hiding from persecution – The Pursuit of Paradise looks into how society’s changes have altered our views of gardening, who does it, and how we do it. What drives people to risk their lives in search of a rare Himalayan flower? Why are so many gardeners homosexual? How did gardening become a respectable career for women? When did looking at other people’s gardens become a national British pastime?

Using particular gardens to lead into themes like power, refuge, female emancipation, distribution of wealth and fashion, Jane Brown presents a history of the nation through its most popular national pursuit. It will be essential reading for the horticulturally impassioned for years to come.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

In the foreword to this social history of gardens and gardeningJane Brown states her intention to steer away from "overly aristocratic" garden history in favour of one that is "popular and nostalgic." From our early introduction to the garden as children via nursery rhymes and fairy tales, the notion of garden as refuge and stepping stone to adventure is deeply embedded in our psyche. Humankind's need to tend the earth is ancient and has come in many guises through history. From the sensuous pleasure gardens of One Thousand and One Arabian Nights to the orderly monastic vegetable plots of Benedictine monks, the horticultural fascination is timeless.

Social changes have radically affected our view of gardening--who does it and how it is done. Brown traces these changes thematically from the links between gardens and art, fashion, pleasure, healing, science, even to war and military gardens. Rather than showing how gardening has simply reflected changes in society, Brown uses England's most popular pursuit to reflect these diverse social changes and historic trends. A multitude of historic and literary examples are seized upon to illustrate her lively argument. References move quickly from The Beano to Blenheim House, Barbara Cartland to Babylon, blending the literary, scientific, esoteric and popular in one breath. Though detailed and precise, the tone is wittily serious and wryly amusing with Brown's exuberance surfacing in descriptions such as here on the sight of pineapples growing in the rediscovered garden at Heligan in Cornwall: "There is something far more miraculous about this juicy yellow orb, with all its chin-dribbling lusciousness, emerging from the chill of a bleak Cornish farmyard and piles of dung, than about all the sun- drenched fruits jetted from afar daily to our supermarket shelves."

For the future Brown looks back to the healing comfort of plants, citing as an example Monty Don's Snowdrop Garden at Wythenshawe Hospital designed for parents who have lost a child. Allied with this is a fascination with Zen Buddist gardens promising contemplative fulfilment and, above all, of the boom in organic gardening which will ensure that we and our gardens will be in a healthier state than ever. This lovely book interestingly and wittily makes us aware of the ancient and colourful lineage of which we are a part. Venerating England's most popular pastime in the remembrance that, "it is this, the simplest and yet most precious combination of us and our soil, that bonds us in the pursuit of paradise with all who have gone before and those yet to come." --Rachel O'Connor

Review:

‘A fresh and beautifully illustrated account of gardeners’
ideals and their realisations... Open it at any page and one is hooked’
Natasha Spender, Daily Mail

‘The most enchanting, erudite and thought-provoking book on the subject to be published for many years’
Amanda Craig, Independent on Sunday

‘Completely absorbing’
Peter Parker, Daily Telegraph

‘A series of idiosyncratic, delightfully informative and elegantly written essays...
‘This year’s ideal Christmas present for the literate gardener’
Sir Roy Strong, Sunday Express

‘A genuinely important contribution, not just to understanding gardens of the past, but to how we might get the most pleasure from the gardens of the future’
Montagu Don, Observer

‘If you want to be impressively well-informed about why every self-respecting home must have a patio, or why delphiniums, gladioli and larkspur are distinctly pass�, then latch on to this illuminating book’
Penelope Lively, Mail on Sunday

‘Be warned. This is a rich brew, not to be taken in one gulp. Gardening in this book encompasses science and history, philosophy and art, literature and the military, politics and sex... it is all tremendous fun’
Ruth Gorb, Guardian

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.