Intelligence of Flowers

The Belgian author Maurice Maeterlinck (1862–1949) is remembered best as a pioneer of Symbolist drama in the 1890s. Recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1911, Maeterlinck was also a prolific and accomplished essayist. Philip Mosley is Professor of English, Communications, and Comparative Literature at Penn State University.

"…a wonderfully enjoyable, insightful and worthwhile read … This work would be of interest to anyone excited by the remarkable process of the plant world and would expressly appeal to gardeners and flower growers." — Huntia"A rare gem, written … in lyrical and accessible prose." — The Times Literary Supplement"…Maeterlinck is a seductive essayist … [and] writes with the same intrinsic humility that will be familiar to admirers of John Muir, Aldo Leopold, or Mary Oliver." — The Boston Globe"That the intelligence of flowers provides Maeterlinck with a theory riddled with contradictions—mostly as a result of his metaphoric reasoning—seems less important than the fundamental truths of the metaphors unto themselves. As a result, 'The Intelligence of Flowers' is happily welcome once more, in this centenary reissue." — San Francisco Chronicle"The republication of Maurice Maeterlinck's 'The Intelligence of Flowers,' regrettably forgotten in our time, is long overdue. The introduction by Mosley is itself a gem, and contains one of the best overviews in print of writings about intelligence in Nature." — Stephen Harrod Buhner, author of The Secret Teachings of Plants: The Intelligence of the Heart in the Direct Perception of Nature

• Acknowledgments Introduction The Intelligence of Flowers Scents On the Publication History of Maeterlinck’s Botanical EssaysSelect Bibliography