The Gardener's Year - Softcover

Capek, Karel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0299100243 ISBN 13: 9780299100247

Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press, 1984

Synopsis

Karel Capek's The Gardener's Year is a timeless classic of wit and wisdom, sure to capture the heart and imagination of every gardener—indeed, everyone who has pursued any hobby with a passion that occasionally overrides good common sense. Originally published more that fifty years ago in Czechoslovakia, it transcends the years with grace and ease. Whether Capek is talking about the lack or surfeit of rain, the fruitless search for space to plant just a few more perennials, or the unfathomable mystery of the green thumb, his words strike chord upon chord within every gardener, in every time and place. Fifty-eight sprightly drawings by Karel Capek's brother Josef Capek, lend themselves perfectly to the artful simplicity and humour of this book.
Through the year, Capek does battle with the garden hose, learns the value of patience in spring, prays to the Lord for rain (but only on certain parts of the garden, please), buys far too many plants at every opportunity, curses raspberry canes that invade from his neighbor's garden, routs stones from the soil (they seem to grow from spores), and agonizes continually about the garden while he is on vacation in August. In short, Karel Capek is a gardener, timeless, with all the frailties, hope, and boundless optimism necessarily shared by all gardeners. After the sun sets, he leans on his spade and sighs with deep content: "I have sweated today!"

About this title

Review:

'Capek's The Gardener's Year is a celebration of the virtues of being close to the soil...The Gardener's Year...is perfect vacation reading for the gardener and nongardener...It's sunny with a hint of a breeze and just a small cloud the size of a man's hand.' Barbara Day, The Prague Post, 06/08/2006 Review in Hortus, No. 67, Autumn 2003 'Karel Capek's distillation of the agony and the ecstasy that runs through every gardener's year has been beautifully translated by Geoffrey Newsome.' John Patten, Country Life, August 2003 '...The Gardener's Year, excellently translated by Geoffrey Newsome, is a work of great charm and considerable subtlety...' Miranda Seymour, The Literary Review, September 2003--Sanford Lakoff "Literary Review "

About the Author:

Karel Capek is well known for his early science fiction, notably "The War of the Newts.""The Gardener's Year," in which he gives himself over freely to his true passion, was published originally in Czech, in 1929, and in English by Allen & Unwin in 1931. Long out of print, it found a new life in a 1982 French edition, and now with this Wisconsin reprinting of t he English translation Capek's book takes a firm place among the classic works of gardening literature."

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
• Publication date: 1984
• ISBN 10: 0299100243
• ISBN 13: 9780299100247
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160