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Bezig met laden... A Thing in Disguise: The Visionary Life of Joseph Paxtondoor Kate Colquhoun
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 Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. 1   Stevil2001 | Oct 12, 2018 |  geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
"Today one would be hard pressed to choose a "Pre-eminent Victorian," a perfect embodiment of the golden age of innovation and energy. But among the Victorians themselves, it was agreed that one figure towered above the rest. His name was Joseph Paxton (1803-1865), and he bestrode the worlds of horticulture, urban planning, and architecture like a colossus. This was the indispensable man, the self-taught polymath and can-do pragmatist who had a solution to every large-scale logistical problem, the genius whom an impossibly overworked Charles Dickens dubbed "The Busiest Man in England."" "Rising quickly from humble beginnings, Paxton, at age twenty-three, became head gardener and architect at Chatsworth, the estate of the sixth Duke of Devonshire. Under Paxton's hands, Chatsworth was transformed into the greatest garden in England, a paradise of enormous and beautiful greenhouses, gravity-defying waterworks, and exotic botanical wonders. The world, even Queen Victoria herself, came to marvel: here was Britain's answer to the hanging gardens of Babylon. Paxton also edited standard-setting garden periodicals, helped found the London Daily News, and was a Liberal MP for Coventry. But it was his design for the Crystal Palace, home of the Great Exhibition of 1851, that secured his immortality. Applying what he had learned about constructing greenhouses to the problem of erecting a monumental but temporary public space, he created the architectural triumph of the era, a magnificent and unprecedented "fairy palace" of iron and glass. Built in eight months by a team of two thousand men, it was six times the size of St. Paul's Cathedral, enclosed a space of eighteen acres, and entertained six million visitors. In the wake of its spectacular success, Paxton was in constant demand to design parks and public buildings and to propose ways to ease congestion, pollution, and filth in London, then the world's most populous city." "Drawing on personal papers and dozens of historical archives, she gives us not only Paxton the public man but also the private one - a loving husband, an indulgent father, and a loyal, generous humor-loving friend. Here is the story of a man who personified the Victorian ideals of self-improvement, resourcefulness, and civic service, and a touching portrait of a remarkably down-to-earth visionary."--BOOK JACKET. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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 Google Books — Bezig met laden...GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)712.092The arts Area planning and landscape architecture Landscape architecture / landscape design History, geographic treatment, biography BiographyLC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde: (4.2)
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Paxton taught himself architecture to build new glasshouses for the Duke's collection, and he put in a proposal for the building to house the Great Exhibition. This thrust him into the national spotlight, and soon he was designing public parks, on the boards of railway corporations, standing for Parliament, creating a daily newspaper edited by Charles Dickens, and organizing relief efforts in the Crimea! Colquhoun's account of his rise is a fascinating look at a fascinating life, and she peppers the book with little human details ably, especially the stories of Paxton and the Duke's appreciation for each other and for plant life. Their enthusiasm for rare plants is infectious even through the printed page. I loved her accounts of Victoria's two visits to the Duke's estate, one as a young princess, one with Albert in tow. The Duke of Wellington thought Paxton's gardeners so well organized that he said Paxton would have made a good general!
Arguably, the Victorian period was the first time we really became conscious that we were moving into the future, and Paxton was one of the people trying to design that future. "The Busiest Man in England" is a great story in itself, and also filled with connections to other stories of the nineteenth century: I was pleased to see, for example, that Jane Loudon (author of The Mummy!: A Story of the Twenty-Second Century) got a couple mentions, and Paxton's life brought him into contact with Dickens, Robert Louis Stevenson, John Tenniel, and many other familiar names. A nice personal story from my favorite period of history.