A gorgeously jacketed hardcover anthology of short stories from around the world that celebrate gardens and gardeners
Gardens have been fruitful settings for stories ever since Adam and Eve were ejected from Paradise. This delightfully wide-ranging collection brings together all sorts of tales of the tilled earth, featuring secret gardens, enchanted gardens, gardens public and private, grand and humble.
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Spectacular gardens are viewed from the perspective of a snail in Virginia Woolfâs âKew Gardensâ and from that of a sheltered teenage girl in Katherine Mansfieldâs âThe Garden-Party.â The family in Doris Lessingâs âFlavours of Exileâ hauls succulent vegetables and fruits from the rich African soil, and Colette in âBygone Springâ luxuriates in extravagantly blooming flowers. Children discover their own peculiar paradises in Sandra Cisnerosâs âThe Monkey Gardenâ and Italo Calvinoâs âThe Enchanted Garden,â while adult gardeners find things that move and haunt them in William Maxwellâs âThe French Scarecrowâ and Jamaica Kincaid's "The Garden I Have in Mind."
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Gardens of the imagination round out the anthology: the beautiful but fatal garden of Nathaniel Hawthorneâs âRappacciniâs Daughter,â the crystal buds of J. G. Ballardâs âThe Garden of Time,â ravenous orchids in John Collierâs âGreen Thoughts,â and Matsudo Aokoâs âPlanting,â in which a young woman plants each day whatever she has been givenâroses and violets, buttons and broken cups, love and fear and sorrow. Garden Stories is an abundant crop of entrancing stories and the perfect gift for gardeners of all kinds.
Everyman's Library pursues the highest production standards, printing on acid-free cream-colored paper, with full-cloth cases with two-color foil stamping, decorative endpapers, silk ribbon markers, European-style half-round spines, and a full-color illustrated jacket.