The Gardener's Year (Modern Library Gardening) by Capek, Karel - 2002

New York: Modern Library, 2002 From the internationally acclaimed Czech writer Karel Capek comes this beautifully written and marvelously apt account of the trials and tribulations of the gardeners life. First published in Prague in 1929, The Gardeners Year combines a richly comic portrait of life in the garden, narrated month by month, with a series of delightful illustrations by the authors older brother and collaborator, Josef. Capeks gardeners "all too human, despite their lofty aspirations" often look the fool, whether they be found sopping wet, victims of the cobralike water hose, or hunched over, hands immersed in the soil, "presenting their rumps to the splendid azure sky." In their repeated folly, Capek gives us not only cause for laughter but also, in the end, "testimony of the imperishable and miraculous optimism of the human race." This Modern Library edition is published with a new Introduction by Verlyn Klinkenborg. First Thus.. Softcover. As New. Illus. by Josef Capek.