Christine O'Brien – författare

This is an anthology of flowers in paintings, prose and poetry. It is an enchanting gift book for flower lovers everywhere, perfect for any occasion. It features beautiful floral paintings by Daniel Sherrin, Johan Laurentz Jensen, Mary Elizabeth Duffield, Madeleine Lemaire, Maria Dorothea Krabbe, Lais Hansen, and more. It presents poetry and prose extracts from the great writers of the Victorian period, including Algernon Charles Swinburne, Emily Bronte, William Wordsworth, William Cowper, John Keats, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and many more. You can learn the meanings of flowers and the delightful symbolism and vocabulary invented by the Victorians. Flowers have always been cherished for their transient beauty and wonderful fragrance: from the tiny bell-like snowdrop to the majestic golden lily, and from Alcea to Viola, they have been written, portrayed in art, and sung about for centuries. As well as being loved for their beauty and fragrance, flowers have also come to symbolize certain ideas, messages and feelings, never more so than in the nineteenth century when the folklore and symbolism of flowers so preoccupied Victorian ladies and their gentlemen admirers.The classic pieces by celebrated writers in this anthology are accompanied by over 80 beautiful period paintings and painstakingly accurate botanical illustrations. Exquisitely designed, this is the perfect gift for flower lovers everywhere.

This title features beautiful works of art specially selected to accompany delightful pieces of verse and prose. It includes classic poetry by Chaucer, Shakespeare, Spencer, Tennyson, and Milton, amongst others, as well as anonymous rhymes, folk songs and fairy lore passed down through the centuries. The chapters include Famous Fairies; Fairy Tricks and Good Turns; Fairy Possessions, Feasts and Sports; Fairy Homes; and Fairy Lovers. It is a book that celebrates these elusive creatures, with poetry and tales of their exploits, and evocative pictures which capture their entrancing, fragile charm. It is a beautiful gift anthology to keep or give away. In folklore and tales fairies come in many forms: ethereal queens, beautiful enchantresses; house fairies and woodland sprites, the tiny spirits of flowers and trees; mischievous pixies; elves and nymphs. In whatever form they appear to those who believe in them, fairies are always mysterious, magical and secretive. They live in a curious half-world, which exists in the mists just beyond human perception but is always rooted in nature.In art and literature fairies often appear to the innocent or the lost, to children or questing knights, and they can be found at twilight in woodland glades, inside fairy rings, or on deserted moonlit beaches. This book brings together classic works of art, and much-loved and quoted poetry and prose, to celebrate these elusive creatures and create a celebration of the land of faerie and its inhabitants.