A Cultural History of Gardens in the Age of Enlightenment

Description

The Enlightenment raised fundamental questions about what it meant to be human in a truly global world. At the heart of debates about nature, culture and history, the garden offered itself as a practical demonstration, a living experiment, and a site of debate and discourse. The design, planting, experience and representation of contemporary gardens in Europe, China and North America reveal intense contributions to debates on aesthetics, both personal and national politics, and on the shaping of nature. A Cultural History of Gardens in the Age of Enlightenment presents an overview of the period with essays on issues of design, types of gardens, planting, use and reception, issues of meaning, verbal and visual representation of gardens, and the relationship of gardens to the larger landscape.

Stephen Bending is a Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Southampton. He is the author of Women, Gardens and Eighteenth-Century Culture, and co-editor of Writing Rural England 1500-1800.

An exciting and unusual approach to a perhaps undervalued aspect of history . . . [that] usefully fills a niche area of research and study. [A Cultural History of Gardens] provides an important and fascinating insight through thought-provoking essays and will be of value to anyone with an interest in the history of the garden . . . the development of human society in general. -- Louise Ellis-Barrett, St. John's School, Leatherhead, UK * Reference Reviews, vol. 28 *