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John Evelyn: A Life of Domesticity

By (author) John Dixon Hunt

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normal price: R 576.95

Price: R 519.95

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| book description |

The work of English writer, gardener and diarist John Evelyn is of great historical value. His most famous work, his Diary, which he kept throughout his life, is considered an invaluable source of information on more than fifty years of social, cultural, religious and political life in seventeenth-century England. But Evelynâ€™s work is often overshadowed by the literary contributions of his contemporary and friend Samuel Pepys. John Dixon Huntâ€™s biography takes a fresh look at the life and work of one of Englandâ€™s greatest diarists, focusing particularly on the seventeenth-century notion of â€˜domesticityâ€™. He explores Evelynâ€™s domestic life and, more importantly, the domestication of foreign ideas and practices in England. From his early, extensive European travels, Evelyn imbibed ideas above all on the management of estate design and developed an understanding of how to explore English topography. The book puts Evelynâ€™s great accomplishment â€“ making European garden art available in the UK â€“ into context alongside a range of social and ethical ideas. Illustrated with visual material from Evelynâ€™s time and often from his own pen, this is an ideal introduction to a seventeenth-century figure of huge importance in early modern Britain.