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The Sun King's Garden

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Release : 2006-10-31
Genre : Gardening
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 313/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis The Sun King's Garden by : Ian Thompson

Download or read book The Sun King's Garden written by Ian Thompson. This book was released on 2006-10-31. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents an illustrated account of the creation of one of the world's most dazzling and extensive gardens, the gardens at the palace of Versailles, noting the unique four-decade friendship between Louis XIV, the creator of the garden, and Andre Le Ntre, the gardener.

The Gardener of Versailles

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Release : 2014-02-11
Genre : Gardening
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 703/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis The Gardener of Versailles by : Alain Baraton

Download or read book The Gardener of Versailles written by Alain Baraton. This book was released on 2014-02-11. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An “eccentric and charming” love letter to Versailles Palace and its storied grounds, by the man who knows them best—for gardening lovers and Francophiles (New York Times) Tour Versailles’ 2,100 acres as its gardener-in-chief describes its fascinating history and his 40 years of living and working in the gardens. In Alain Baraton’s Versailles, every grove tells a story. As the gardener-in-chief, Baraton lives on its grounds, and since 1982 he has devoted his life to the gardens, orchards, and fields that were loved by France’s kings and queens as much as the palace itself. His memoir captures the essence of the connection between gardeners and the earth they tend, no matter how humble or grand. With the charm of a natural storyteller, Baraton weaves his own path as a gardener with the life of the Versailles grounds, and his role overseeing its team of 80 gardeners tending to 350,000 trees and 30 miles of walkways across 2,100 acres. He richly evokes this legendary place and the history it has witnessed but also its quieter side that he feels privileged to know: The same gardens that hosted the lavish lawn parties of Louis XIV and the momentous meeting between Marie Antoinette and the Cardinal de Rohan remain enchanted—private places where visitors try to get themselves locked in at night, lovers go looking for secluded hideaways, and elegant grandmothers secretly make cuttings to take back to their own gardens. A tremendous bestseller in France, The Gardener of Versailles gives an unprecedentedly intimate view of one of the grandest places on earth.

Love and Louis XIV

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Release : 2010-06-25
Genre : Biography & Autobiography
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 519/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Love and Louis XIV by : Antonia Fraser

Download or read book Love and Louis XIV written by Antonia Fraser. This book was released on 2010-06-25. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The superb historian and biographer Antonia Fraser, author of Marie Antoinette, casts new light on the splendor and the scandals of the reign of Louis XIV in this dramatic, illuminating look at the women in his life. The self-proclaimed Sun King, Louis XIV ruled over the most glorious and extravagant court in seventeenth-century Europe. Now, Antonia Fraser goes behind the well-known tales of Louis’s accomplishments and follies, exploring in riveting detail his intimate relationships with women. The king’s mother, Anne of Austria, had been in a childless marriage for twenty-two years before she gave birth to Louis XIV. A devout Catholic, she instilled in her son a strong sense of piety and fought successfully for his right to absolute power. In 1660, Louis married his first cousin, Marie-Thérèse, in a political arrangement. While unfailingly kind to the official Queen of Versailles, Louis sought others to satisfy his romantic and sexual desires. After a flirtation with his sister-in-law, his first important mistress was Louise de La Vallière, who bore him several children before being replaced by the tempestuous and brilliant Athénaïs, marquise de Montespan. Later, when Athénaïs’s reputation was tarnished, the King continued to support her publicly as Athénaïs left court for a life of repentance. Meanwhile her children’s governess, the intelligent and seemingly puritanical Françoise de Maintenon, had already won the King’s affections; in a relationship in complete contrast to his physical obsession with Athénaïs, Louis XIV lived happily with Madame de Maintenon for the rest of his life, very probably marrying her in secret. When his grandson’s child bride, the enchanting Adelaide of Savoy, came to Versaille she lightened the King’s last years – until tragedy struck. With consummate skill, Antonia Fraser weaves insights into the nature of women’s religious lives – as well as such practical matters as contraception – into her magnificent, sweeping portrait of the king, his court, and his ladies.

North American Sun Kings

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Author :
Release : 1992
Genre : Indians of North America
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 032/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis North American Sun Kings by : Joseph B. Mahan

Download or read book North American Sun Kings written by Joseph B. Mahan. This book was released on 1992. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Cultivated Power

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Release : 2005-03-07
Genre : Biography & Autobiography
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 069/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Cultivated Power by : Elizabeth Hyde

Download or read book Cultivated Power written by Elizabeth Hyde. This book was released on 2005-03-07. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cultivated Power explores the collection, cultivation, and display of flowers in early modern France at the historical moment when flowering plants, many of which were becoming known in Europe for the first time, piqued the curiosity of European gardeners and botanists, merchants and ministers, dukes and kings. Elizabeth Hyde reveals how flowers became uniquely capable of revealing the curiosity, reason, and taste of those elite men who engaged in their cultivation. The cultural and increasingly political value of such qualities was not lost on royal panegyrists, who seized upon the new meanings of flowers in celebrating the glory of Louis XIV. Using previously unexplored archival sources, Hyde recovers the extent of floral plantations in the gardens of Versailles and the sophisticated system of nurseries created to fulfill the demands of the king's gardeners. She further examines how the successful cultivation of those flowers made it possible for Louis XIV to demonstrate that his reign was a golden era surpassing even that of antiquity. Cultivated Power expands our knowledge of flowers in European history beyond the Dutch tulip mania, and restores our understanding of the importance of flowers in the French classical garden. The book also develops a fuller perspective on the roles of gender, rank, and material goods in the age of the baroque. Using flowers to analyze the movement of culture in early modern society, Cultivated Power ultimately highlights the influence of curious florists on the taste of the king, and the extension of the cultural into the realm of the political.

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