The Gardens of Desire

The Gardens of Desire
Author: Stephen Gilbert Brown
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2012-02-01
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780791484968

The Gardens of Desire is at once a model of literary interpretation and a groundbreaking psychocritical reading of a literary masterpiece, Marcel Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu (Remembrance of Things Past). Shedding new light on the origins of the creative impulse in general, and on the psychological origins of the Recherche in particular, the book illuminates the hidden associations between matricidal, suicidal, sadistic, masochistic, homoerotic, and creative impulses as manifested in Proust's work. The book moves beyond traditional Freudian readings of Proust to consider the theories of Otto Rank, Jacques Derrida, and others, and provides provocative readings of the "privileged moments" that comprise many of the work's "critical cruxes," as well as a thought-provoking rereading of the novel's ending. Both elegant and accessible, this book boldly explores the violence of desire as it relates not only to Proust's narrator, but also to Proustian criticism itself, with its own violent desire to appropriate the essence of Proust's masterpiece.

In the Garden of Desire

In the Garden of Desire
Author: Wendy Maltz
Publisher: Broadway
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1998-05-04
Genre: Sexual fantasies
ISBN: 9780767901611

Delving into the uncharted territory of women's sexual imaginations, acclaimed sex expert Wendy Maltz and journalist Suzie Boss expand the boundaries of what we know about female desire and satisfaction. Drawing on intimate interviews with women of all ages and lifestyles, Maltz and Boss take readers on a journey of passion, pleasure, and self-discovery as they: Describe the origins of women's sexual fantasies Identify the six most common fantasy roles--the Pretty Maiden, the Victim, the Wild Woman, the Dominatrix, the Beloved, and the Voyeur Illuminate the diverse functions of sexual fantasies from stimulating orgasm to improving one's self-image Help women discover their own fantasy style and change unwanted fantasies Offer advice on how and when to talk about one's fantasies with one's partner In this candid and inspiring book, women--and their lovers--will learn how to use the power of their imaginations to heighten sexual expression and self-awareness and achieve new levels of intimacy.

Green Desire

Green Desire
Author: Rebecca W. Bushnell
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2003
Genre: Gardening
ISBN: 9780801441431

For Rebecca Bushnell, English gardening books tell a fascinating tale of the human love for plants and our will to make them do as we wish. These books powerfully evoke the desires of gardeners: they show us gardeners who, like poets, imagine not just what is but what should be. In particular, the earliest English garden books, such as Thomas Hill's The Gardeners Labyrinth or Hugh Platt's Floraes Paradise, mix magical practices with mundane recipes even when the authors insist that they rely completely on their own experience in these matters. Like early modern "books of secrets," early gardening manuals often promise the reader power to alter the essential properties of plants: to make the gillyflower double, to change the lily's hue, or to grow a cherry without a stone. Green Desire describes the innovative design of the old manuals, examining how writers and printers marketed them as fiction as well as practical advice for aspiring gardeners. Along with this attention to the delights of reading, it analyzes the strange dignity and pleasure of garden labor and the division of men's and women's roles in creating garden art. The book ends by recounting the heated debate over how much people could do to create marvels in their own gardens. For writers and readers alike, these green desires inspired dreams of power and self-improvement, fantasies of beauty achieved without work, and hopes for order in an unpredictable world--not so different from the dreams of gardeners today.

The Botany of Desire

The Botany of Desire
Author: Michael Pollan
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2002-05-28
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0375760393

“Pollan shines a light on our own nature as well as on our implication in the natural world.” —The New York Times “A wry, informed pastoral.” —The New Yorker The book that helped make Michael Pollan, the New York Times bestselling author of How to Change Your Mind, Cooked and The Omnivore’s Dilemma, one of the most trusted food experts in America Every schoolchild learns about the mutually beneficial dance of honeybees and flowers: The bee collects nectar and pollen to make honey and, in the process, spreads the flowers’ genes far and wide. In The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan ingeniously demonstrates how people and domesticated plants have formed a similarly reciprocal relationship. He masterfully links four fundamental human desires—sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control—with the plants that satisfy them: the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato. In telling the stories of four familiar species, Pollan illustrates how the plants have evolved to satisfy humankind’s most basic yearnings. And just as we’ve benefited from these plants, we have also done well by them. So who is really domesticating whom?

The Genesis of Desire

The Genesis of Desire
Author: Jean-Michel Oughourlian
Publisher: MSU Press
Total Pages: 223
Release: 2009-12-15
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1609171268

We seem to be abandoning the codes that told previous generations who they should love. But now that many of us are free to choose whoever we want, nothing is less certain. The proliferation of divorces and separations reveal a dynamic we would rather not see: others sometimes reject us as passionately as we are attracted to them. Our desire makes us sick. The throes of rivalry are at the heart of our attraction to one another. This is the central thesis of Jean-Michel Oughourlian's The Genesis of Desire, where the war of the sexes is finally given a scientific explanation. The discovery of mirror neurons corroborates his ideas, clarifying the phenomena of empathy and the mechanisms of violent reciprocity. How can a couple be saved when they have declared war on one another? By helping them realize that desire originates not in the self but in the other. There are strategies that can help, which Dr. Oughourlian has prescribed successfully to his patients. This work, alternating between case studies and more theoretical statements, convincingly defends the possibility that breakups need not be permanent.

A Taste of Desire

A Taste of Desire
Author: Beverley Kendall
Publisher: Beverley Kendall
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2020-03-24
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1632110350

Thomas Armstrong vows only the loss of his faculties could ever convince him to take Amelia Bertram under his care during her father’s absence from England. Sadly, that loss does occur… the moment Lady Amelia publicly states that rumors of his exalted sexual prowess are more fable than fact. Responding like any man with an ounce of pride would, he picks up the gauntlet she threw down on the ballroom floor. After the death of her mother, Amelia Bertram is further devastated by the withdrawal of her father’s love. To survive the double heartbreak, she walls off her emotions. Now, her social faux pas finds her sharing a roof with the very man who took her place in her father’s affections…the man her father hopes one day to call son. In the seclusion of his country estate, Thomas glimpses in Amelia a vulnerability buried beneath a mountain of jealousy and pain. In turn, she discovers the ton’s ‘golden Greek god’ is more than the sum of rumor and innuendo. Soon a fire ignites between them not even a deluge from the Thames can extinguish. Can they set aside their plans—his for revenge, hers to escape—to forge a love powerful enough to surmount his pride and crumble the walls surrounding her heart? *Reissue. Originally published by Kensington Publishing in 2011

Death in the Garden of Desire

Death in the Garden of Desire
Author: Richard Geha
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
Total Pages: 651
Release: 2019-10-17
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 179604041X

1900—the Gilded Age! Stanford White, the world’s most renowned architect, creator of Madison Square Garden, falls in love with the exotic Gibson Girl, Evelyn Nesbit. They become dangerously involved with a demented millionaire, Harry Thaw. Amid a crowd of merrymaking theater goers, atop the splendid Madison Square Garden, another drama, a tragedy, explodes into the first and most gripping crime of the century.

Paths of Desire

Paths of Desire
Author: Dominique Browning
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2005-02-08
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780743251099

Traces the author's endeavors to restore and recreate her suburban garden, an effort during which she combated pests, neighborhood ecological limitations, and other elements while discovering the joys of organic gardening.

Native Gardens

Native Gardens
Author: Karen Zacarías
Publisher: Concord Theatricals
Total Pages: 76
Release: 2019
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 0573707545

Pablo, a high-powered lawyer, and doctoral candidate Tania, his very pregnant wife, are realizing the American dream when they purchase a house next door to community stalwarts Virginia and Frank. But a disagreement over a long-standing fence line soon spirals into an all-out war of taste, class, privilege, and entitlement. The hilarious results guarantee no one comes out smelling like a rose.

Green Desire

Green Desire
Author: Rebecca Weld Bushnell
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2018-07-05
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 150172245X

For Rebecca Bushnell, English gardening books tell a fascinating tale of the human love for plants and our will to make them do as we wish. These books powerfully evoke the desires of gardeners: they show us gardeners who, like poets, imagine not just what is but what should be. In particular, the earliest English garden books, such as Thomas Hill's The Gardeners Labyrinth or Hugh Platt's Floraes Paradise, mix magical practices with mundane recipes even when the authors insist that they rely completely on their own experience in these matters. Like early modern "books of secrets," early gardening manuals often promise the reader power to alter the essential properties of plants: to make the gillyflower double, to change the lily's hue, or to grow a cherry without a stone. Green Desire describes the innovative design of the old manuals, examining how writers and printers marketed them as fiction as well as practical advice for aspiring gardeners. Along with this attention to the delights of reading, it analyzes the strange dignity and pleasure of garden labor and the division of men's and women's roles in creating garden art. The book ends by recounting the heated debate over how much people could do to create marvels in their own gardens. For writers and readers alike, these green desires inspired dreams of power and self-improvement, fantasies of beauty achieved without work, and hopes for order in an unpredictable world—not so different from the dreams of gardeners today.