The Perfect Garden

Italian Villas and Their Gardens
Edith Wharton
250 pages
Copy: mine; a super ugly used copy from the '70s that I bought off the internet
Read: April 3-10, 2015
Spoilers: there is literally nothing to spoil (unless "hates English gardens" is a spoiler?)

My only problem with this book is that I have absolutely no idea to whom this book is aimed. It isn't detailed enough to help you construct your own Italian villa and garden. There are no detailed garden plans. There isn't enough advice about gardening--so this isn't a manual.

It also isn't really a tour guide. Wharton is obviously interested in how gardens complement villas, but that interest does not necessarily translate to a logical and clear guide around Italy. (The book is divided into sections according to region, but her movement through a region isn't necessarily logical, nor is her movement between regions particularly clear.) She points out some history, describes some bits and pieces (too much for a tour guide, honestly--the details seem too thorough to be for people who are looking at the gardens currently), and then moves on.

So here's what I think--this book is for people making long term plans. Thinking about redesigning your garden? Here's a book that will tell you exactly which places to visit in Italy to go see gardens that might function as proper models. When you return home, this book has enough detail to remind you about what you saw so you might be able to recreate certain aspects of the gardens.

This book may also be for stir crazy gardeners who are slowly being driven nuts by winter weather.

At any rate, I really enjoyed this book. Wharton's complete dislike of English gardens is deeply amusing. Her all-consuming love of Italian architecture and gardening (and even, to some extent, Italian culture) is almost equally amusing. (She also really hates French gardens, which made me giggle a bit, considering her later love affair with France.) I also vaguely feel that her book is a time capsule. She first published this in 1903--I can't imagine many of the villas or their gardens survive today. Hers may have been the last recording of some of these buildings.

Her nascent environmental argument also intrigued me. The perfect garden harmonizes not just with the building it surrounds (indeed, some of Wharton's favorite gardens had little to do with their villas), but also with the nature it usurps. The best gardens incorporate natural features (especially hills and gorges), rather than altering them or eliminating them. She seems to reserve a special degree of scorn for those who work against nature, or think they can do better than nature (ahem, English gardens). Also, she hates lawns, something I appreciated in particular (I have a deep hatred of lawns, personally).

So who ought to read this book? Primarily people who are interested in the history of gardens, honestly. (I'm reading this because I am starting to draw up my comps lists and because I'll be writing my dissertation on 19th century garden-writing.) I'm not sure I'd even recommend this to Wharton fans--maybe only if you're a completist. Certainly her wit shines through in places, but overall this is a pretty straightforward text, without her trademark descriptions, diction choices, or even attention to detail. (If you want to try out some Wharton nonfiction, I'd recommend France, from Dunkerque to Belfort, her book on France during the early days of World War I. It is a truly glorious piece of war reporting, and deeply under-appreciated.)