Details Books In Favor Of The Paper Garden: Mrs. Delany Begins Her Life's Work at 72
Original Title: | The Paper Garden: Mrs. Delaney Begins Her Life's Work at 72 |
ISBN: | 0771070330 (ISBN13: 9780771070334) |
Edition Language: | English |
Literary Awards: | Andrew Carnegie Medal Nominee for Nonfiction (2012) |
Molly Peacock
Hardcover | Pages: 416 pages Rating: 3.84 | 1006 Users | 242 Reviews
Describe Regarding Books The Paper Garden: Mrs. Delany Begins Her Life's Work at 72
Title | : | The Paper Garden: Mrs. Delany Begins Her Life's Work at 72 |
Author | : | Molly Peacock |
Book Format | : | Hardcover |
Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
Pages | : | Pages: 416 pages |
Published | : | October 12th 2010 by McClelland & Stewart |
Categories | : | Nonfiction. Biography. Art. Literature. 18th Century. History. Historical |
Ilustration Concering Books The Paper Garden: Mrs. Delany Begins Her Life's Work at 72
The Paper Garden is unlike anything else you have ever read. At once a biography of an extraordinary 18th century gentlewoman and a meditation on late-life creativity, it is a beautifully written tour de force from an acclaimed poet. Mary Granville Pendarves Delany (1700-1788) was the witty, beautiful and talented daughter of a minor branch of a powerful family. Married off at 16 to a 61-year-old drunken squire to improve the family fortunes, she was widowed by 25, and henceforth had a small stipend and a horror of a marriage. She spurned many suitors over the next twenty years, including the powerful Lord Baltimore and the charismatic radical John Wesley. 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 found love, and married. Upon her husband's death 23 years later, she arose from her grief, picked up a pair of scissors and, at the age of 72, 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 Botanica Delanica.Delicately, 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 35 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.
Rating Regarding Books The Paper Garden: Mrs. Delany Begins Her Life's Work at 72
Ratings: 3.84 From 1006 Users | 242 ReviewsCrit Regarding Books The Paper Garden: Mrs. Delany Begins Her Life's Work at 72
How have I escaped ever knowing about the woman who invented collage? And where was I when the buzz began in 2010 about Molly Peacocks extraordinary biography of her? I found both artists by accident, browsing through paperbacks piled on a table beside the tiny café inside the Book Worm in downtown Edwards, Colorado.The Paper Garden: An Artist Begins Her Lifes Work at 72. Its been a while since Ive read a massive biography complete with endnotes and index. But in one of those reminders of theI really enjoyed this book. I read it for my Art Book Club, which meets tomorrow, and I am expecting that few will like it as much as I did. It was not at all what I expected.Written by poet Molly Peacock, I was at first thrown by her language, which seemed overblown. However, as I got into the book, I started to enjoy Peacock's language. The book tells the life story of Mary Delany, a well-born Englishwoman who lived from 1700 to 1788. She came up with the idea of making botanical collages from
The author views the almost 200 paper collages of flowers that Mary Delany created from age 72 on as portraits of her early life. I could not accept that two tulips bending toward each other indicated that Lord X was attracted to her any more than the little bud, partially hidden behind a flower, suggested that Mary had a homosexual attraction to his younger sister. I have made up this example to show how over analysed the book is.
I found it a striking coincidence that, while I was reading Wordsworth's "The Prelude," a work I've avoided for decades, I also happened upon Molly Peacock's The Paper Garden, a poetic biography of Mary Delaney. Both works are about the life influences that formed an artist but the contrast is striking.I realize that it isn't completely fair to compare the two lives. When Wordsworth was born, Mary Delaney was 70 years old and those 7 decades made a difference. Class must also be taken into
I first came across Mary Delanys intricate paper flowers at an exhibition held at one of Londons great treasure troves, Sir John Soanes Museum, in early 2010. Though at the time I recognized the flower mosaics as gorgeous miniature works of art, it took reading this biography of Delany (1700-1788) for me to truly appreciate their beauty especially since they were created by an amateur in the last 16 years of her long life. [Do spend some time browsing some of her amazing works of art on the
This marvelous book is a mix of biography and memoir, written in a beautiful, inviting style that feels as if the author is having coffee with you and sharing her latest research. Molly Peacock is a poet who conveys Mary Granville Delaney's life in lovely, lyrical detail that is educational and enjoyable. It helps that Mary Delaney's life is captivating: in addition to being a talented artist, she was great friends with many luminaries of her day, and her eighty-eight years encompassed some
With my increasing age I become increasingly interested in people who blossom and find purpose (or re-purpose) late in life so I picked up this book from a table at Chapters because of the sub-title. However, from page one, I was charmed by not one life, but two. Peacock introduces the reader not only to the amazing Mary Granville Pendarves Delany, but to the thoughtful and observant Molly Peacock. She interweaves the story of Mrs. Delanys life with her own discoveries about Mrs. Delanys mosaics
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