By Any Other Name: A Cultural History of the Rose

· Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Jennifer M. Dixon
Audiobook
10 hr 33 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook

The rose is bursting with meaning: over the centuries it has come to represent love and sensuality, deceit, death, and the mystical unknown. Today the rose enjoys unrivalled popularity across the globe, ever present at life's seminal moments. Grown in the Middle East two thousand years ago for its pleasing scent and medicinal properties, it has attached itself to us, its needy host and servant, to become one of the most adored flowers across cultures. The rose is well-versed at enchanting human hearts-no longer selected by nature, but by us. From Shakespeare's sonnets to Bulgaria's Rose Valley to the thriving rose trade in Africa and the Far East, via museums, high fashion, Victorian England, and Belle Epoque France, we meet an astonishing array of species and hybrids of remarkably different provenance. This is the story of a hardy, thorny flower and how, by beauty and charm, it came to seduce the world.

About the author

Simon Morley is a British artist and art historian. He is the author of several books and catalogue essays on modern and contemporary art, and his art reviews and essays have been published in numerous magazines and journals. He is now assistant professor of fine art at Dankook University.

As a retired board-certified music therapist, licensed counselor, and veteran of the Michigan Opera and several community theaters, Jennifer Dixon has explored the power of words and music to motivate, inspire, provoke, soothe, and heal. She brings this unique perspective to her work as an audiobook narrator.

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