Overview
Sharawadgi traces the history of English landscape design to the decentralized gardens of Japan. The author covers the romantic period during the eighteenth century, and the key personalities of William Temple, Joseph Addison and Alexander Pope. Murray explores the psychological subtleties of these men as well as the interchange between East and West. A fascinating read for students of Asia or English romanticism.
Synopsis
Sharawadgi traces the history of English landscape design to the decentralized gardens of Japan. The author covers the romantic period during the eighteenth century, and the key personalities of William Temple, Joseph Addison and Alexander Pope. Murray explores the psychological subtleties of these men as well as the interchange between East and West. A fascinating read for students of Asia or English romanticism.
Author Biography: Ciaran Murray is a faculty member at Chuo University in Japan.
Editorials
Bulletin Of The Journal Of Decorative Art
. . . until the end of last year . . . the Eastern origins of the landscape garden were steeped in confusion . . . [Sharawadgi] demonstrates the possibilities of research into 'cultural space' at a new investigative level. . . . What distinguishes it from the majority of fashionable inter-disciplinary studies, however, is its deployment of the biographical concreteness of the historian, providing new insights into the spiritual lives of the many famous personalities connected with the development of the English landscape garden. . . . Murray shows the link between the history of gardens and political history . . . with the notion of the personal freedom of individuals . . . and the absence of order in the shape of the personal world structured by them . . . unusual and beautiful . . . rigorous, brilliant, vivid.— Dimitri Shvidkovsky, Moscow Institute of Architecture