Table of Contents

List of illustrations; Preface; Acknowledgements; 1. Flowers in Africa; 2. In the beginning: gardens and paradise, garlands and sacrifice; 3. The decline of flower culture in Europe; 4. Flowers without representation in Islam; 5. The return of the rose in medieval Western Europe; 6. Icons and iconoclasm in the Renaissance; 7. The growth of the market; 8. The secret Language of Flowers in France: specialist knowledge or fictive ethnography; 9. The Americanisation of the foreign mind; 10. The popular culture of flowers in Europe; 11. Garlands in India: the marigold and the jasmine; 12. The 'four gentlemen of flowers' in China; 13. 'Let a hundred flowers bloom': the New Year in South China; 14. A distant reading; References; Index.

Promotional Information

An analysis of the symbolic and transactional uses of flowers in secular life and religious ritual from ancient Egypt to modern times.

Reviews

'… his book is full of interest for anyone who wonders why people love flowers.' The Independent on Sunday

'A bouquet of a book, this compendium of floral anthropology blossoms with detail … a sequence of brilliantly informed essays …'. The Observer

'With ambitious comprehensiveness, this new study charts the social and symbolic significance of flowers down the ages … a pioneering work: intelligently argued, encyclopaedic in its learning, and handsomely produced.' The Sunday Telegraph

'In this beautifully produced volume, Jack Goody … provides a majestic tour de monde of the culture of flowers … This encyclopedic compendium is in addition to being erudite, readable and interdisciplinary in focus, a must for all those interested in flowers from any perspective.' Choice

'… a richly stimulating account of a wonderful subject.' The Financial Times