Research Catalog

Title

The language of fruit : literature and horticulture in the long eighteenth century / Liz Bellamy.

Author

Bellamy, Liz

Publication

• Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2019]
• ©2019

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

248 pages; 24 cm.

Summary

"In The Language of Fruit, Liz Bellamy explores how poets, playwrights, and novelists from the Restoration to the Romantic era represented fruit and fruit trees in a period that saw significant changes in cultivation techniques, the expansion of the range of available fruit varieties, and the transformation of the mechanisms for their exchange and distribution. Although her principal concern is with the representation of fruit within literary texts and genres, she nevertheless grounds her analysis in the consideration of what actually happened in the gardens and orchards of the past. As Bellamy progresses through sections devoted to specific literary genres, three central "characters" come to the fore: the apple, long a symbol of natural abundance, simplicity, and English integrity; the orange, associated with trade and exchange until its "naturalization" as a British resident; and the pineapple, often figured as a cossetted and exotic child of indulgence epitomizing extravagant luxury. She demonstrates how the portrayal of fruits within literary texts was complicated by symbolic associations derived from biblical and classical traditions, often identifying fruit with female temptation and sexual desire. Looking at seventeenth-century poetry, Restoration drama, eighteenth-century georgic, and the Romantic novel, as well as practical writings on fruit production and husbandry, Bellamy shows the ways in which the meanings and inflections that accumulated around different kinds of fruit related to contemporary concepts of gender, class, and race. Examining the intersection of literary tradition and horticultural innovation, The Language of Fruit traces how writers from Andrew Marvell to Jane Austen responded to the challenges posed by the evolving social, economic, and symbolic functions of fruit over the long eighteenth century."--

Series Statement

Penn studies in landscape architecture

Uniform Title

Penn studies in landscape architecture.

Alternative Title

Lliterature and horticulture in the long eighteenth century

Subjects

• Fruit-culture
• Horticultural literature
• English literature
• Fruit in literature
• England
• Fruit > Symbolic aspects
• Fruit-culture > England > History > 18th century
• History
• English literature > 18th century > History and criticism
• Horticultural literature > England > History > 18th century
• 1700-1799
• Criticism, interpretation, etc

Genre/Form

• Criticism, interpretation, etc.
• History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 226-241) and index.

Contents

Introduction. Discoursing with Fruit Trees -- "I Am the True Vine": The Uses of Fruit in Biblical and Classical Tradition -- "A Chiefe Meanes to Enrich This Common-Wealth": The Language of Fruit in Horticultural Literature -- "Stumbling on Melons": Negotiating the Garden in Seventeenth-Century Verse -- "You Have Only Squeezed My Orange": The Fungibility of Fruit in Restoration Drama -- "The Native Zest and Flavour of the Fruit": Constructions of the Apple in Eighteenth-Century Georgic -- "Unnatural Productions": Cultivating the Pineapple in the Romantic Period Novel -- Conclusion.

Call Number

JFE 19-1142

ISBN

• 9780812250831
• 0812250834

LCCN

• 2018033466
• 40029021638

OCLC

1054261249

Author

Bellamy, Liz, author.

Title

The language of fruit : literature and horticulture in the long eighteenth century / Liz Bellamy.

Publisher

Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2019]

Copyright Date

©2019

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

Penn studies in landscape architecture

Penn studies in landscape architecture.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 226-241) and index.

Chronological Term

1700-1799

Other Standard Identifier

40029021638

Research Call Number

JFE 19-1142