Morgan discusses the origin of the emerald, its peculiar structure, and its strange allure. The story weaves across several continents and thousands of years. It is a tale of conquistadors, treachery, shipwrecks, and alchemy. Along the way, we meet scientists and kings and bear witness as the great emeralds are born, mined, smuggled, cut, and sold. The book also discusses the modern art of making synthetic emeralds. From the fastnesses of Afghanistan to the steamy jungles of Colombia and Zimbabwe, from the sands of Egypt to the bitter Urals, this is the story of a stone whose strange journey reflects the yearnings, greed, passions, and longing for beauty of the human race.
FREE Two-Day Shipping for students on millions of items. Learn more |
Book Description
Special Offers and Product Promotions
- Buy $50 in qualifying physical textbooks, get $5 in Amazon MP3 Credit. Here's how (restrictions apply)
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Morgan begins with legends of the green gemstone. Then she discusses how they come to be, the emerald business, their appearance in world history, the great emeralds, secrets of the trade, and fake emeralds and their kin."
-Reference & Research Book News
"Morgan traces emeralds through time in an interesting mixture of technical information and completely nontechnical to nearly rhetorical discussions. A significant portion of the work emphasizes mythic and magical aspects of emeralds and related minerals, along with people involved (or allegedly so) in the long history of this gemstone….[t]he treatment of emerald discoveries, worldwide distribution, and mining is very thorough and especially useful in its coverage of the past three decades….For those in the gem industry and nonprofessionals interested in the historical and related aspects of emeralds….General readers."
-Choice
Book Description
This book relates the natural, mythical, and social history of the emerald.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A New Look at Emeralds,
This review is from: From Satan's Crown to the Holy Grail: Emeralds in Myth, Magic, and History (Hardcover)
I found Diane Morgan's book to be a fascinating blend of history, minerology, and the magical, mystycial, and medicinal properties attributed to this marvelous gem. If you would like to know more about these subjects, I heartly recomend this very interesting, humerous and highly readable book.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Nice Little Book on the Green Stone,
By
This review is from: From Satan's Crown to the Holy Grail: Emeralds in Myth, Magic, and History (Hardcover)
This book is a quick read about this beautiful gemstone. It balances history with science and culture, though unless you're a die-hard emeraldophile you may get more info than you care for. I enjoyed the lore and myth associated with the stone more than anything else. It would have been nice to have had color photoes of some of the fabulous stones described in the book, though. I mean, we like these shiney pebbles because they're purdy, right?
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192250339_.gif){kind=small}
