The Paper Garden : Mrs Delany begins her life's work at 72 / Molly Peacock
- Bib ID:
- 8038223
- Format:
- Book
- Author:
- Peacock, Molly, author
- Online Access:
- National edeposit: Onsite at National Library of Australia
- Related Online Resources:
- Thumbnail
- Access Conditions:
- National edeposit: Available onsite at national, state and territory libraries
- Description:
-
- Carlton North : Scribe Publications Pty Ltd., 2010
- Brunswick, Victoria : Scribe Publications, 2010
- 1 online resource (416 pages)
- File Characteristics:
- text file EPUB 3.1MB
- ISBN:
- 9781921753480 (EPUB)
- Summary:
-
A beautifully written tour de force from an internationally acclaimed poet, The Paper Garden is at once a biography of an extraordinary eighteenth-century woman and a fascinating meditation on late-life creativity. Mary Granville Pendarves Delany (1700-1788) was the witty, beautiful, and talented daughter of a minor branch of a powerful family. Married off at seventeen to a sixty-one-year-old drunken squire to improve the family fortunes, then widowed by twenty-five, she would spurn many suitors over the next twenty years, including the charismatic Lord Baltimore, and she would also refuse to retire to a quiet, pensioned existence. Instead, she cultivated a wide circle of friends, including Handel and Jonathan Swift. And she painted, she stitched, she observed, as she swirled in the outskirts of the Georgian court. In mid-life, she finally found love, and married again. Upon her second husband's death twenty-three years later, she arose from her grief, picked up a pair of scissors and, at the age of seventy-two, created a new art form, mixed-media collage. Over the next decade, Mrs. Delany created an astonishing 985 botanically correct, breathtaking cut-paper flowers, now housed in the British Museum and referred to as the Flora Delanica. Delicately, Molly Peacock has woven parallels in her own life around the story of Mrs. Delany's and, in doing so, has made this biography into a profound and beautiful examination of the nature of creativity and art. Gorgeously designed and featuring thirty-five full-colour illustrations, this is a sumptuous and lively book full of fashion and friendships, gossip and politics, letters and love. It's to be devoured as voraciously as one of the court dinners it describes.
- Full contents:
- Contents; Chapter 1; Chapter 2; Chapter 3; Chapter 4; Chapter 5; Chapter 6; Chapter 7; Chapter 8; Chapter 9; Chapter 10; Chapter 11; Chapter 12; Chapter 13; Chapter 14; Notes; Flowers and Faces: A List; People, Places, Plants and Practices: An Index; Acknowledgments.
- Notes:
-
- Description based upon print version of record.
- Print version record
- Subject:
- Genre/Form:
- Electronic books
- Other authors/contributors:
- Scribe
- Copyright:
-
In Copyright
You may copy under some circumstances, for example you may copy a portion for research or study. Order a copy through Copies Direct to the extent allowed under fair dealing. Contact us for further information about copying.
Copyright status was determined using the following information:
- Material type:
- Literary, dramatic or musical work
- Published status:
- Published
- Publication date:
- 2010
Copyright status may not be correct if data in the record is incomplete or inaccurate. Other access conditions may also apply. For more information please see: Copyright in library collections.
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