The Sun King's Garden: Louis XIV, Andre le Notre and the Creation of the Gardens of Versailles [Hardcover]

Ian Thompson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 31, 2006

Warmonger, womanizer, and autocrat, Louis XIV may also have been history's most fanatical gardener. At Versailles, twelve miles outside Paris, France's self-styled "Sun King" created not only Europe's most lavish palace, but, beginning in 1661, the most extensive gardens the Western world has ever seen. Assisting Louis in this enterprise was the low-born gardener André Le Nôtre, whose character and temperament were as different from those of his sovereign as it is possible to conceive. Where Louis was ruthless and relentlessly driven, Le Nôtre was down to earth, witty and amiable - and also phenomenally talented. While Louis could strike fear into the highest in the land with just a look, Le Nôtre enjoyed the king's trust and friendship for more than 40 years. In this lavishly illustrated book, Ian Thompson tells more comprehensively than ever before the intertwined stories of an extraordinary garden and an extraordinary friendship.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Lavishly and intelligently illustrated...the best account currently available in English of how and why this extraordinary prodigy of gardening art and regal vanity came into existence.' Sunday Telegraph 'Lively and well researched, studded with anecdotes and fascinating statistics.' Daily Telegraph 'A superb account...the book is as delightful and masterly as the project it describes.' The Spectator --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

About the Author

A former professional landscape architect himself, Ian Thompson now is a lecturer in landscape architecture at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. The Sun King's Garden is his first book.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA; 1st US Edition edition (October 31, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582346313
• ISBN-13: 978-1582346311
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7.8 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,216,700 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well written book- I really enjoyed it, March 18, 2008

By 

Chris Heiler "Editor- www.LandscapeLeadership... - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sun King's Garden (Hardcover)

What I really appreciate about this book is that it is NOT just a description and summary of Versailles and it's gardens. Ian Thompson does a great job describing the context in which Versailles was built as well as the many characters involved and their relationship to one another. You really learn about the personalities of King Louis and Le Notre and how they related to one another. I think you will also see King Louis in a different light than from a typical historical perspective because this book is more about the gardens of Versailles. The paintings and drawings included in this book are also terrific.

3.0 out of 5 stars In need of clipping...., January 2, 2012

By 

Le Stryge "in OZ" (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Sun King's Garden: Louis XIV, Andre le Notre and the Creation of the Gardens of Versailles (Hardcover)

There is obviously very little existing information on the life of Le Notre. The author of this book stretches and pads what does to extraordinary lengths in this largish book. We learn a few new things,such as the lengths that were gone to to alleviate the desperate need for a constant supply of water etc. but the much of this book is hardly new territory if you have already indulged your interest in the gardens of Versailles and Vaux-le-Vicomte. I have long admired what Le Notre achieved, although very little is left of his original plantings now, all have been extremely modified and simplified over the passage of time, ...if not outright fanciful re-creations. I was hoping to learn more about the life of this man and his talent for the harmony, structure and balance that we can glimpse the merest palimpsest remaining in those gardens that do still exist.

However, this work, although obviously quite well researched has not managed to find very much at all about Le Notre himself, other than where he lived an who he married really; certainly not enough to warrant a book of this length.

It's an "OK" read for devotees of the Ancien Regime, ...of which I am most certainly one, and indeed I wanted to enjoy the work but I found it all a bit "light weight" really, going over as it does so much of what has already been printed. This may be due to the fact that I have already read fairly extensively on this subject, but if it's new to you then you will gain some insight into the incredible lengths that were pursued to create a massive garden in a most inauspicious location.

Just remember that what you see there today is NOT Le Notre's work at all and in fact probably only reflects the merest outline of the original plantings; ...the entire gardens having been cut down and replanted with extensive alterations on quite a few occasions, ...even during the reign of Louis XV and XVI. Of course the entire site was almost totally neglected during and immediately following the revolution, ....not to mention the serious destruction wrought by several very severe storms in more recent times. Any of the more complicated plantings in the parterres tend to be simplified, or even totally removed for ease of maintenance nowadays too.

There are some black and white diagrams included as well as colour reproductions of the paintings of the fountains of Versailles that are currently to be found in the Grand Trianon, ...although the Sal de Bal where they are displayed has been inexplicably roped off of late, preventing a close inspection of these records.

None of these included illustrations are really referred to directly in the text, they just seem to be additions to be made of what the reader will.

Informative enough, ...but not as gripping as the story could have been told, particularly regarding Le Notre.

7 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars LOUIS' EDEN, November 7, 2006

By 

Shannon Deason (Houston) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Sun King's Garden: Louis XIV, Andre le Notre and the Creation of the Gardens of Versailles (Hardcover)

Louis XIV was fortunite in his association with the great Le Notre or I should say he was lucky to have the power of the devine right monarch, so he could steal him from Fouquet and Vieux le Vicomte to work on his Vallala, Versailles. Louis was king incarnate, he was the state, period, the epitome, the very definition of the devine, absolute monarch, and he knew exactly what he wanted and with the genius of Le Notre he created a garden that was and to this day still is the envey of the world. This book does a fine job of capturing Le Notre's gardens at Versailles at their best. The text is enlightening and the images are well conceived. If you have any interest in Versailles or French Formal Gradens, the I highly recommend this book.