Gardener to the King - Hardcover

Richaud, Frederic

3.5

139 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1860467784 ISBN 13: 9781860467783

Publisher: Harvill Pr, 2000

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August 1674 - Louis XIV, one of Europe's greatest sovereigns, celebrates his armies' victory over Holland. At Versailles, the favourite of the royal residences, everything must reflect the glory of the Sun King.
In this world of pomp and show, one man remains detached from the procession of servants, soldiers, politicians, diplomats, flatterers and self-seekers that daily surround the King. As gardener to His Majesty, Jean-Baptiste de La Quintinie is master of his own domain, the royal fruit and vegetable garden. Louis' generals might proclaim the power of France abroad, but La Quintinie's espaliers and vegetable plots assert nothing less than man's mastery over nature: a garden that can feed a thousand at a sitting, standards of pruning that in three hundred years have never been surpassed. Once a lawyer who turned his back on a brilliant career to pursue his love of horticulture, La Quintinie became, in the process, an artist.
His skill is admired by the King and revered by savants, his freedom is envied by all - the rhythms he observes are not those of the courtly dance but of the seasons. As the autocratic might of the King fuels the rising hysteria around him, La Quintinie's wide humanitarian sympathies are with the soil and those who live by it. For the kitchen garden at Versailles harbours not only a great courtier, gardener and provider, but also a secret radical.

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About the Author:

Frederic Richaud was born in 1966. He works in Paris as a teacher and journalist. Gardener to the King is his first novel.

From Publishers Weekly:

A refreshing departure from the sweeping historical novel, Richaud's slight but charming tale depicts the swirling world of Louis XIV's court as seen through the eyes of Jean-Baptiste de La Quintinie, the king's detached and philosophical gardener. La Quintinie, a little man with a mysterious past he abandoned a promising law career to become a horticulturist is an odd figure at the palace of Versailles, where flatterers and courtesans bask in the glow of the Sun King. Only La Quintinie seems able to escape the decadence of palace life, taking refuge in the beauty of his gardens and the changing of the seasons. Despite his reluctance to enter court, the little gardener strikes up a respectful friendship with the king, who takes genuine delight in his flourishing gardens. But La Quintinie much prefers his rustic routine to the fickle falseness of the city. When summoned to Paris at the behest of the king, he attends a masquerade ball where guests don outlandish disguises and gossip cattily about each other. Horrified, La Quintinie returns to the countryside and begins to involve himself in the lives of the impoverished workmen and peasants who live near Versailles, teaching them to garden and delivering seeds and manure to their homes. When he strikes up a correspondence with political radical Philippe de Neuville, La Quintinie must confront the injustice of the king's attitudes to the poor and his own complicity with the king's regime. Constructed of anecdotes, snatches of conversation and excerpts of the letters written by La Quintinie and Neuville, this novel is a contemplative read. Readers desiring a brief, elegant immersion into 17th-century France will find it to their liking.

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