In Search of Paradise: Great Gardens of the World [Hardcover]

Penelope Hobhouse (Author)

Book Description

Series: In Search of Paradise | Publication Date: September 21, 2006

In Search of Paradise is a survey of the great gardens of the world, presented through photographic images and the descriptions of the garden designer and writer Penelope Hobhouse. Here you will find the oases of the Middle East, the gardens of Chinese scholars, Japanese sages and Renaissance humanists, French baroque gardens, the English landscape garden of Capability Brown and his followers. Here too are the gardens of the great modern designers, among them Roberto Burle Marx, Fernando Caruncho, Dan Kiley, John Brookes and James van Sweden.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Penelope Hobhouse takes readers on a voyage through time, commencing with the utopian gardens of Persia and working through to the typical gardens of today. Who better to do it? ... This is a totally delectable book that will enthral anyone, whether their passion be gardens or photography. It will certainly be picked up time after time. -- John Flynn Another wonderful book from Northern Ireland's great gardening writer Penelope Hobhouse. This lovely tome would make a superb present, if you can bear to give it away. Scottish Sunday Herald

About the Author

Penelope Hobhouse is internationally-renowned as a garden designer, writer and historian. She holds the Victoria Medal of Honour, the highest award of the Royal Horticultural Society. She has also received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Guild of Garden Writers and a Quill and Trowel Award from the Garden Writers Association of America. To visit Penelope Hobhouse's website click here

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Frances Lincoln (September 21, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0711226156
• ISBN-13: 978-0711226159
• Product Dimensions: 12.2 x 10.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #188,909 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

57 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A VOLUME TO SAVOR AND RETURN TO AGAIN AND AGAIN, December 6, 2006

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: In Search of Paradise: Great Gardens of the World (Hardcover)

The ideal garden we are given to understand is a paradise - "a haven of comfort, abundance, and beauty." Many of us try to achieve that paradigm in our own way, as have countless others before us. Now gathered in one gorgeous volume are the results of those endeavors gleaned from diverse cultures and climes.

We begin our armchair tour with "Gardens Through the Centuries," a journey covering four thousand years beginning with the earliest gardens alive in the deserts of the Middle East. The first Mughal Emperor Babur (1483 - 1530) had a number of gardens including the Garden of Fidelity which was divided into four parts with a central pool.

Of course, the gardens designed in China and Japan expressed a respect for nature, evidenced in vast areas where the placement of each stone had meaning. Places for contemplation, stroll and moss gardens were found in Japan.

For this reader what can compare with the gardens of Italy? Hadrian's Villa near Tivoli boasts open porticoes, enclosed atriums, fountains, basins, statuary. It is a wonder. La Mortola on the Italian Riviera is a place for dreaming with a steep slope to the sea rich in agaves, aloes, white roses, salvias and citrus trees. A virtual Eden on earth.

Ms. Hobhouse continues our tour with a look at modern garden design as represented by such designers as Roberto Burle Marx, Fernando Caruncho, and Beth Chatto.

"In Search of Paradise" holds 240 pages and 200 illustrations all in glorious color contributed by the world's foremost garden photographers.

The is a volume to be savored and returned to again and again.

- Gail Cooke

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful and enchanting trip through the gardens of the world, February 23, 2008

By 

May Flower "May Flower" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In Search of Paradise: Great Gardens of the World (Hardcover)

A wonderful book, with beautiful and inspiring pictures. Always a pleasure to go back again and again at its pages.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars INCREDIBLE!!, March 21, 2009

By 

C. Bellegarrigue "COBRABRAVA" (El Salvador) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In Search of Paradise: Great Gardens of the World (Hardcover)

Los mas bellos jardines del mundo en un solo libro; una magnifica coleccion indispensable en toda biblioteca de cualquier amante del paisajismo, la jardineria y la arquitectura del espacio abierto; con excelentes fotos de gran calidad, paginas muy bien ilustradas y que proporcionan maravillosas ideas de lo que un jardin esencialmente es; incluye reseñas historicas y obras de renombrados paisajistas de todo el mundo junto a sus grandes legados al mundo del espacio...Un maravilloso libro!!