Description

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The New York Times bestseller and international publishing sensation.

Greed, desire, anguish, and devotion have all played their part in the development of the tulip from a wild flower of the Asian steppes to the worldwide phenomenon it is today. No other flower has ever carried so much cultural baggage: it charts political upheavals, illuminates social behavior, mirrors economic booms and busts, and plots the ebb and flow of religious persecution.

Sumptuously illustrated from a wide range of sources, this beautifully produced and irresistible volume has become a bible, a unique source book, a universal gift book, and a joy to all who possess it. Now available in paperback, it's as irresistible as its subject.

About the Author

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Anna Pavord is the gardening correspondent for the Independent, and the author of The Flowering Years and Gardening Companion. She lives in Dorset, England.

Praise For…

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"Splendidly extravagant history...an astonishing bouquet of economic and cultural lore, grand historic trends and horticultural exotica." --Publishers Weekly

"Visually stunning" --New Yorker

"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

"Verbally and visually ravishing book." --House & Garden

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