Description

A twentieth anniversary edition of the classic, featuring new material by the author.

Anna Pavord's internationally bestselling sensation, The Tulip, is the story of a flower that has driven men mad. Greed, desire, anguish, and devotion have all played their part in the development of the tulip into a worldwide phenomenon. Today, the United States alone imports three thousand million tulip bulbs each year. No other flower has ever carried so much consequence; it charts political upheavals, illuminates social behavior, mirrors economic booms and busts, plots the ebb and flow of religious persecution.

Why did the tulip dominate so many lives through so many centuries in so many countries? Anna Pavord, a self-confessed tulipomaniac, spent six years looking for answers, roaming through Asia, India, and the Ottoman Empire to tell how a humble wildflower of the Asian steppes made its way to Turkey and from there took the whole of Western Europe by storm.

Sumptuously illustrated from a wide range of sources, this irresistible volume has become a bible, a unique source book, a universal gift book, and a joy to all who possess it. This beautifully redesigned edition features a new Preface by the author, a completely revised listing of the best varieties of this incomparable flower to choose for your garden, and a reorganized listing of tulip species, to reflect the latest thinking by taxonomists.

About the Author

Praise For…

“Gracefully woven . . . An adventure story . . . Skillfully told.” —New York Times

“Splendidly extravagant history . . . An astonishing bouquet of economic and cultural lore, grand historic trends and horticultural exotica.” —Publishers Weekly

“Visually stunning.” —New Yorker

“A disarming, captivating history of the tulip--a byzantine story rich in subtexts . . . Alive with wonder.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Verbally and visually ravishing book.” —House & Garden

“Fascinating and sumptuous . . . An epic drama, a true tale that spans continents and centuries, shows humankind at its worst and its best, with heroes and villains galore.” —Seattle Post-Intelligencer

“A wondrous account . . . Remarkable.” —Seattle Weekly

“The Tulip reads more like an adventure story, written against a backdrop of a 16th-and 17th-century Europe.” —Desert Sun