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Gärten. Ein Versuch über Das Wesen Der Menschen (2008)

by Robert Pogue Harrison(Favorite Author)

4.11 of 5 Votes: 1

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Carl Hanser Verlag

review 1: I'm only about half way through this remarkable book, but am thoroughly smitten by the way Robert Pogue Harrison thinks. His task, it seems to me, is to understand how gardens, hardly necessary for human survival, have become so important to us culturally. To accomplish this, he quotes the Bible, Gilgamesh, Wallace Stevens, a Czech writer, Stendahl. The reader can see how gardens have saturated our literature/culture. Each chapter is organized around a facet of gardens (like Edenic ones or like the ad hoc gardens homeless people create around them), allowing Harrison to explore, interrogate, meditate upon what these spaces tell us about the connection between earth, human, and spirit. Not a quick read, but a profound book.
review 2: Harrison's wide-ranging... more exploration of the concept of "garden," how it has changed through time and across cultural divides, and how it relates to the human condition makes fascinating reading. Although some chapters took tangents that made them seem refugees from another book rather than elucidations of the main theme, I followed the author through the labyrinth, including the appendices, notes, and bibliography. I often found myself pausing to think about what I had read or mentally constructing a curriculum for a course in which this book would occupy a place in the syllabus. It is a book I will read again and one which has given me references to many more books I want to read. Reading the book is much like strolling through an interesting garden, admiring the design while being inspired to think creative thoughts of one's own. less

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