Humans have long turned to gardens - both real and imaginary - for sanctuary from the frenzy and tumult that surrounds them. Those gardens may be as far away from everyday reality as Gilgamesh's garden of the gods or as near as our own backyard, but in their very conception and the marks they bear of human care and cultivation, gardens stand as restorative, nourishing, necessary havens. With Gardens, Robert Pogue Harrison graces readers with a thoughtful, wide-ranging examination of the many ways gardens evoke the human condition. Moving from the gardens of ancient philosophers to the gardens of homeless people in contemporary New York, he shows how, again and again, the garden has served as a check against the destruction and losses of history. The ancients, explains Harrison, viewed gardens as both a model and a location for the laborious self-cultivation and self-improvement that are essential to serenity and enlightenment, an association that has continued throughout the ages. The Bible and Qur'an; Plato's Academy and Epicurus's Garden School; Zen rock and Islamic carpet gardens; Boccaccio, Rihaku, Capek, Cao Xueqin, Italo Calvino, Ariosto, Michel Tournier, and Hannah Arendt - all come into play as this work explores the ways in which the concept and reality of the garden has informed human thinking about mortality, order, and power. Alive with the echoes and arguments of Western thought, Gardens is a fitting continuation of the intellectual journeys of Harrison's earlier classics, Forests and The Dominion of the Dead. Voltaire famously urged us to cultivate our gardens; with this compelling volume, Robert Pogue Harrison reminds us of the nature of that responsibility - and its enduring importance to humanity.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Robert Pogue Harrison is the Rosina Pierotti Professor in Italian Literature and chairs the Department of French and Italian at Stanford University. He is the author of "The Body of Beatrice", "Forests: The Shadow of Civilization", "The Dominion of the Dead", "Gardens: An Essay on the Human Condition", and "Juvenescence: A Cultural History of Our Age", the latter three published by the University of Chicago Press. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is also host of the radio program "Entitled Opinions" on Stanford's station KZSU 90.1.
“The year’s most thought-provoking, original, and weighty garden book is Gardens. . . . Reading Harrison’s book is like strolling down a path through a well-cultivated, richly sown, light-dappled woodland. . . . Just as in the making of a garden, there’s no end to the wonder; the journey is everything.”
(New York Times Book Review)"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Shipping:
FREE
Within U.S.A.
Shipping:
FREE
Within U.S.A.
Seller: SecondSale, Montgomery, IL, U.S.A.
Condition: Very Good. Item in very good condition! Textbooks may not include supplemental items i.e. CDs, access codes etc. Seller Inventory # 00074104360
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: GF Books, Inc., Hawthorne, CA, U.S.A.
Condition: New. Book is in NEW condition. 1.94. Seller Inventory # 1459606264-2-1
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Book Deals, Tucson, AZ, U.S.A.
Condition: New. New! This book is in the same immaculate condition as when it was published 1.94. Seller Inventory # 353-1459606264-new
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Revaluation Books, Exeter, United Kingdom
Paperback. Condition: NEW. 380 pages. 9.84x7.80x1.18 inches. This item is printed on demand. Seller Inventory # zk1459606264
Quantity: 1 available