Title: The language of flowers : a history /
Authors: Seaton, Beverly.
Publisher: University Press of Virginia,
Year: 1995
Subjects: Flowers Symbolic aspects History; Flowers Symbolic aspects; Flowers Literary collections History and criticism.; Flower language; Flower language History; Flowers Literary collections.
Abstract: The author traces the phenomenon of ascribing sentimental meaning to floral imagery from its beginnings in Napoleonic France through its later transformations in England and America. At the heart of the book is a depiction of what the three most important flower books from each of the countries divulge about the period and the respective cultures. Seaton shows that the language of flowers was not a single and universally understood correlation of flowers to meanings that men and women used to communicate in matters of love and romance. The language differs from book to book, country to country.
Contents: I. Flowers in the nineteenth century -- II. The sentimental flower book and its audience -- III. Floral symbolism -- IV. The origins of the language of flowers : France -- V. Further developments : England and America -- VI. Love's truest language : readings in the language of flowers -- VII. Conclusions.