The History of Violets


Book Description

Originally published in 1965, The History of Violets (Historial de las violetas) twists the familiar face of a family farm, populating the fields and grounds with gods, monsters, and a whole "foamy army" of extras. Di Giorgio--whom Kent Johnson hails as "one of the most spectacular and strange Latin American poets of the past fifty years"--locks the natural and supernatural in a perilous dance, balancing humor and violence, beauty and danger, simple childhood memory and complex domestic drama. With disarming grace, these poems leave the reader swirling about, among the flowers, where no one is safe. "There's a lot at stake here, namely the opportunity for a new generation of American poets to take di Giorgio as a model for wresting the 'poetry of witness' away from humanism's easy faith in testimony and remembering that the imagination is the organ of compassion." --Farid Matuk




Violets


Book Description

Written by the world’s leading expert on violets, a former president of the International Violet Association, this updated edition of a classic work is a must-have for gardeners. All four groups of scented violets are covered—hardy single, double, and semi-double violets, and tender Parmas—along with an exhaustive list of cultivars and cultivation information. Captivating color photographs as well as watercolor paintings make this the best-illustrated violet source ever.




Shrinking Violets


Book Description

The author of Armchair Nation and On Roads examines shyness in a“sparkling cultural history rang[ing]from Jane Austen to Silicon Valley” (The Guardian). Shyness is a pervasive human trait: even most extroverts know what it is like to stand tongue-tied at the fringe of an unfamiliar group or flush with embarrassment at being the unwelcome center of attention. And yet the cultural history of shyness has remained largely unwritten—until now. With incisiveness, passion, and humor, Joe Moran offers an eclectic and original exploration of what it means to be a “shrinking violet.” Along the way, he provides a collective biography of shyness through portraits of such shy individuals as Charles Darwin, Charles Schulz, Garrison Keillor, and Agatha Christie, among many others. In their stories often both heartbreaking and inspiring and through the myriad ways scientists and thinkers have tried to explain and “cure” shyness, Moran finds hope. To be shy, he decides, is not simply a burden; it is also a gift, a different way of seeing the world that can be both enriching and inspiring. “Fantastic and involving . . . [A] feat of empathy. Every page radiates understanding; every paragraph, its (shy) author’s gentle wit.”—The Observer “Whether you’re boldly outgoing or reticent and self-effacing, you’ll find something to inspire, inform, or surprise in this thoughtful, beautifully written, and vividly detailed cultural history.”—Susan Cain, New York Times bestselling author of Quiet




Violets


Book Description

By Man Asian Literary Prize winner Kyung-Sook Shin, "a moving delve into a lonely psyche" that follows a neglected young woman's search for human connection in contemporary Seoul (YZ Chin). San is twenty-two and alone when she happens upon a job at a flower shop in Seoul’s bustling city center. Haunted by childhood rejection, she stumbles through life—painfully vulnerable, stifled, and unsure. She barely registers to others, especially by the ruthless standards of 1990s South Korea. Over the course of one hazy, volatile summer, San meets a curious cast of characters: the nonspeaking shop owner, a brash coworker, quiet farmers, and aggressive customers. Fueled by a quiet desperation to jump-start her life, she plunges headfirst into obsession with a passing magazine photographer. In Violets, best-selling author Kyung-Sook Shin explores misogyny, erasure, and repressed desire, as San desperately searches for both autonomy and attachment in the unforgiving reality of contemporary Korean society.




The Captive


Book Description

Edouard Bourdet (1887-1945) was a French playwright. Controversy about the propriety of staging a New York production of his 1926 play La prisonniere [The Captive] was swept away by the "restrained though uncompromising tragedy" that resulted."




With Violets


Book Description

Paris in the 1860s: a magnificent time of expression, where brilliant young artists rebel against the stodginess of the past to freely explore new styles of creating—and bold new ways of living. Passionate, beautiful, and utterly devoted to her art, Berthe Morisot is determined to be recognized as an important painter. But as a woman, she finds herself sometimes overlooked in favor of her male counterparts—Monet, Pissarro, Degas. And there is one great artist among them who captivates young Berthe like none other: the celebrated genius Édouard Manet. A mesmerizing, breathtaking rogue—a shameless roué, undeterred and irresistible—his life is a wildly overgrown garden of scandal. He becomes Berthe's mentor, her teacher...her lover, despite his curiously devoted marriage to his frumpy, unappealing wife, Suzanne, and his many rumored dalliances with his own models. For a headstrong young woman from a respectable family, an affair with such an intoxicating scoundrel can only spell heartbreak and ruin. But Berthe refuses to resign herself to the life of quiet submission that Society has dictated for her. Undiscouraged, she will create her own destiny...and confront life—and love—on her own terms.




African Violets


Book Description

The African Violet (Saintpaulia) continues to increase in popularity, having developed over the past 50 years from its few hundred varieties to the many thousands that exist today. This complete guide details the plant's history, development, and practical information on propagation and care.




Wily Violets and Underground Orchids


Book Description

In this book, Peter Bernhardt takes us on a grand tour of the botanical realm, weaving engaging descriptions of the lovely shapes and intriguing habits of flowering plants with considerations of broader questions, such as why there are only six basic shapes of flowers and why the orchid family is so numerous and so bizarre. Everyone from amateur naturalists and gardeners to plant scientists will find Wily Violets and Underground Orchids a lively guide to botanical lore.




African Violets - Gifts From Nature


Book Description

African Violets: Gifts from Nature-The Series Book One In 1892 while on an evening stroll with his fiance in East Africa, Baron Walter von Saint Paul discovered an unusual plant with delicate purple flowers growing along a stream on his plantation. Legend has it that he picked a bouquet and presented it to his fiance, staring the worlds love affair with the African violet. Today, this plant is indeed the most popular indoor flowering plant grown by gardeners and plant enthusiasts around the world. Whether your goal is to enjoy beautifully flowering African violets in your home, to become an expert grower of these lovely plants, or to develop a deeper understanding of how the plants function, a series of three books are being written to meet your needs. The Series provides you with an authoritative guide, taking you through all the steps necessary for growing elegant African violets and at the same time explaining to you the secrets of why the plants respond to the various growing practices used daily in their care. When writing about African violets, Melvin J. Robeys expertise, pragmatism, humor and love of the subject are clearly evident. The reader will find down-to-earth, up-to-date information in this first of three books in The Series of African Violets: Gifts from Nature. Your African violets wont flower? In this book eight common problems are explored, exposing the secrets to having plants whose crowning glory of blossoms tells everyone you are the superhero of the African violet world. You will also enjoy 44 dazzling color photographs and illustrations, along with several black and white illustrations. A unique chapter on the history of the African violet plant allows the reader to explore the fascinating story of how this spectacular houseplant has captured the imagination of plant-olgists worldwide. For more information on African Violets: Gifts from Nature--The Series visit www.africanvioletbooks.com.




Violets and Other Tales


Book Description

Violets and Other Tales (1895) is a collection of stories and poems by Alice Dunbar Nelson. While working as a teacher in New Orleans, Dunbar Nelson published Violets and Other Tales through The Monthly Review, embarking on a career as a leading black writer of the early twentieth century. “If perchance this collection of idle thoughts may serve to while away an hour or two, or lift for a brief space the load of care from someone's mind, their purpose has been served—the author is satisfied.” With this entreaty, Alice Dunbar Nelson introduces her first published work with a humility and caution rather unfitting an author of such immense talent. In this collection of reflections, vignettes, short stories, and poems, Dunbar Nelson proves herself as a writer immersed in the classics, yet capable of illuminating the events and concerns of her own generation. In “A Carnival Jangle,” she provides a vibrant description of New Orleans during its legendary season of celebration. “The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ” presents itself as a newly discovered manuscript revealing Jesus’ travels in India. Dunbar Nelson’s brilliant prose style is nicely juxtaposed with her expertise in poetic form as she moves fluidly from love poems to religious verses, narrative poems to heartbreaking elegies. Only twenty years old when this collection was published, Dunbar Nelson executes a brilliant debut to a long and distinguished career in literature. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Alice Dunbar Nelson’s Violets and Other Tales is a classic of African American literature reimagined for modern readers.