The loves of the plants
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The loves of the plants
(The Pickering masters, . The botanic garden by Erasmus Darwin / edited by Adam Komisaruk and Allison Dushane ; v. 2)
Routledge, 2017
Available at 2 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Bibliography: p. 223-236
Description and Table of Contents
Description
The career of Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802) affords an extraordinary glimpse into the intellectual ferment of late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century Britain. As a popular poet, practicing physician, inventor of speaking machines and mechanical birds, essayer of natural history from geology to meteorology, and proponent of an evolutionary theory that inspired his famous grandson Charles, he left a lasting impression on almost every branch of knowledge. His magnum opus, and the synthesis of his myriad interests, is The Botanic Garden (1792) - an epic poem that aims to "enlist the Imagination under the banner of Science." Part I, The Economy of Vegetation, sings the praises of British industry as a dance of supernatural creatures while part II, The Loves of the Plants, wittily employs metaphors of human courtship to describe the reproductive cycles of hundreds of flowers. Darwin supplements his accomplished verses with (often much longer) "philosophical notes" that offer his idiosyncratic perspective on the scholarly controversies of the day.
Despite a recent surge of academic interest in Darwin, however, no authoritative critical edition of The Botanic Garden exists, presenting a barrier to further scholarship. This two volume set comprises a complete, meticulously transcribed, reading text - including all the poetry, prose apparatus, and illustrations - along with extensive commentary that situates Darwin within contemporary debates about the natural sciences. This set will be of interest to readers as the definitive reference edition of The Botanic Garden and due to its efforts to make the work more practically and intellectually accessible to seasoned and novice readers alike
This second volume includes the full version of the second part of The Botanic Garden, The Lives of Plants along with the related textual apparatus consisting of the editors' annotations, discussion of the illustrations, textual notes, and a taxonomic table of the flowers mentioned.
Table of Contents
Volume Two
Reading Text of The Loves of the Plants
A. Canto I
B. First Interlude
C. Canto II
D. Second Interlude
E. Canto III
F. Third Interlude
G. Canto IV
H. Additional Notes
I. Back Matter
Apparatus to The Loves of the Plants
Editors' Annotations
Discussion of Illustrations
Textual Notes
Taxonomic Table to The Loves of the Plants
by "Nielsen BookData"