Identify Books Conducive To 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
Description As 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.

Point Based On 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 | : | Deluxe Edition |
Pages | : | Pages: 416 pages |
Published | : | October 12th 2010 by McClelland & Stewart |
Categories | : | Nonfiction. Biography. Art. Literature. 18th Century. History. Historical |
Rating Based On Books The Paper Garden: Mrs. Delany Begins Her Life's Work at 72
Ratings: 3.84 From 1006 Users | 242 ReviewsCommentary Based On Books The Paper Garden: Mrs. Delany Begins Her Life's Work at 72
If this book had covered only Mrs. Delany's life and art it would have been a solid 5-star read. The artwork in this book is wonderfully represented and the prints are detailed and exceptional in quality. I loved poring over the pictures and relating them to the descriptions (minus Peacock's personal insertions of female genitalia). Mary had an incredible sense of colour and shading and it is seen throughout her work. Mary's life is also fascinating. She was a woman of her time and yet also aI 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
There is nothing more comforting than the idea that it is never too late. This idea, and the fact that female artists who were able to create a body of work before the 19th century, much less female artists with beautiful biographies written about them and their work, are too few and far between make this an anomaly among anomalies. I must confess that I bought this book based on looks alone, with only a cursory glance at the contents to know I had stumbled across something magical. And what a

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
Fascinating history. The narrative kept me reading with anticipation. The photography was wonderful. The insertion of the author's own story along with that of Mrs. Delany for me was sheer hubris.For me, Molly Peacock's interpretation of the artist's work was pretty far fetched, but then all art is open to individual interpretation and she certainly has a unique opinion. Which is why I have only given it 3 stars (liked).
A biography combining the author's memoirs sounds intriguing under normal circumstance, about the author's search about the person or their own self-discovery or whatever, especially when the biograph-ee is an artist. This, however, came across as really self-possessed, strange, and confusing. One is bombarded with names and casual relationships, the author's own intrusions, and this really strange sexual interpretation of the artwork from the beginning without context, as if the only inclusion
The author attempts to force relatability in her life with Mrs. Delanys and it results in an awkward and conflated narrative that is 1) unsuitable and 2) insanely infuriating. I dont read memoirs very often but a memoir forcibly injected into the story of an incredible women is especially not my cup o tea.
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