Placeholder text
My Animals & Flowers
0 - Default Title
Description
Grimly pessimistic about human society, Lessing found both a mirror and a refuge in the world of animals and flowers. In observing nature and attributing all type of human characteristics to animals and plants, he exposes the fusing of nature and culture, and - in dialogue with the natural world - confronts a whole cluster of political questions from the question of equality for women and marital fidelity to the pollution of cities and man's destruction of the environment. Much of this work, sketching out the implications of an atomic age for example, has proved uncannily prophetic.
To read this book is to enter into a curious and deeply sensitive world, in which to peer down at a colony of ants is to be reminded of 'giant nations, each in conflict with the others', and to catch a glimpse of bright poppies in a cornfield is to be submerged in a chain of thoughts from St Augustine to David Hume. Amongst the autobiographical reflections, Lessing weaves in critical observations of Western civilization, and critique of human culture as a destructive and disfiguring influence in the natural world. Ultimately, his philosophy of need shows how civilization comes at the expense of nature, ringing true with the climate of our times.
Product details
Edition:
1
Number of Pages:
332
Release Date:
2026-01-22
Publication Date:
2026-01-22
Publisher:
Bloomsbury Academic
Languages:
Original:
English
ISBN10:
1350526789
ISBN13:
9781350526785
Weight:
663 g
Height:
161 cm
Width:
240 cm
Thickness:
22 cm
Currently sold out