Voltaire's Vine and Other Philosophies

An engaging book about how gardens inspired great writers, based on the famous remark by Voltaire at the end of Candide that we should cultivate our gardens, which he himself did at Ferney. The garden is an explicit meeting place of humanity and nature, transforming what is given into something made, and, in this case, an invitation to philosophy. The people discussed and the subtitles of the chapters immediately intrigue the reader. There is Jane Austen, Marcel Proust, Leonard Woolf, Friedrich Nietzsche, Colette, Rousseau, Orwell, Emily Dickinson, Nikos Kazantzakis, Sartre and Voltaire. We learn about the consolations of Chawton Cottage, the importance of gardening in the life of Leonard Woolf and his relationship to Virginia, partly as a way of confronting the tension between order and disorder. From Proust we realise the importance of perceiving the ordinary, from Nietzsche the centrality of nature's processes, and we find George Orwell labouring over creating a garden in Jura. Each chapter paints a sympathetic portrait of the writer and is full of interesting background. As for Voltaire, part of the importance of gardens was as an opportunity to improve his immediate surroundings: he drained marshes, fertilised and sowed fields, and planted vines, while his guests enjoyed the produce from the estate. Overall, the writers share a commitment to the life of the mind, enriched in different senses by the garden: 'an opportunity for distinctive meditation and contemplation', which I am sure many readers will enjoy. I only noticed one error in the book that Baudelaire is called Arthur rather than Charles, which I suspect is a confusion with Rimbaud.