[Publib] [aarlist2] Romance Novel Involving Flowers Used During Wartime?

[Pruntel,Alison]

Hi all,

I've had a couple of people ask me whether I've received my answer yet regarding the romance that a library patron is looking for. Unfortunately, while I've received some interesting leads, none have panned out yet. I appreciate all the responses so far, especially the background info. provided by Judy Turner (see below).

If I do ever learn of the actual title, I will be sure to let everyone know.  :-)

Cheers,

Alison

-----Original Message-----
From: Judith Turner [mailto:turnermalibmba at yahoo.com]
Sent: Monday, October 26, 2009 12:15 AM
To: Pruntel,Alison
Subject: Re: [Publib] Romance Novel Involving Flowers Used During Wartime?

Hi, Alison --

Since I haven't noticed any replies to your query on publib, I was curious to know if you've been able to identify the novel your patron wanted.

For what it's worth (last week was a busy one for me), wikipedia has a good entry on floral language:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_of_flowers

The intro paragraph reads:

The language of flowers, sometimes called floriography, was a Victorian-era means of communication in which various flowers and floral arrangements were used to send coded messages, allowing individuals to express feelings which otherwise could not be spoken. This language was most commonly communicated through Tussie-Mussies, an art which has a following today.

That sounds more like a Civil War based story than a Revolutionary War one.  However, the wikipedia article goes on to to explain that using flowers as symbols goes back to antiquity in western culture.  Plus there's an independent tradition that developed in Japan and the Islamic world also developed a floral language.

The biggest problem I would see to using a floral code in the American Revolution was that the plant choices available here would have been pretty limited (unless the code was very simple but that wouldn't provide a very memorable plot element, imo).

Jenny Uglow's A Little History of British Gardening describes the huge impact of Le Langage des Fleurs published in France in 1818 and translated into English in 1834.  It really kicked off the craze for floriography in Britain and the U.S.

I wish there were an American equivalent of Uglow's hstory of gardening because it is a wonderful work and does a great job of describing the ups and downs of gardening and landscaping from the pre-Roman era to the present.

Over several thousand years, gardening is affected by climate and political changes; more recently lifestyle and fashion changes and the availability of leisure time come into play.  In the past, in periods of war, the ratio of males and females working the land altered and women had to take on more of the heavy agricultural work resulting in less time for tending gardens of flowers and herb (very labor intensive with less contribution to basic survival.)

Of course, if the novelist decided to fudge a bit on matters historical or botanical ....


Judy Turner
Whitefish Bay, WI

Blogging at: http://alms-jact.blogspot.com/
and
http://judyct.wordpress.com/

"Donna Noble has left the library. Donna Noble has been saved." ---- "Silence in the Library"  (Doctor Who, Season 4, Ep. 8)


Alison Pruntel
Electronic Resources Librarian
Fauquier County Public Library
11 Winchester Street
Warrenton, VA 20186
540-349-2770 (voice)
540-349-3278 (fax)
FCPL Web Site: http://library.fauquiercounty.gov
My Blog: http://fcpleresources.blogspot.com
New Stuff at FCPL: http://www.wowbrary.org/nu.aspx?p=2786
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From: aarlist2 at yahoogroups.com [mailto:aarlist2 at yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of michdolly at aol.com
Sent: Saturday, October 24, 2009 12:14 PM
To: aarlist2 at yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [aarlist2] Romance Novel Involving Flowers Used During Wartime?


Hi Alison,

I'm just curious. Did anyone come up with the right book? All I could think of was Lauren Willig's book "Secret of the Pink Carnation" which is one of my all time favorites, but was written in 2004.

Dolly

-----Original Message-----
From: Pruntel,Alison <Alison.Pruntel at fauquiercounty.gov>
To: 'aarlist2 at yahoogroups.com' <aarlist2 at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wed, Oct 21, 2009 7:13 am
Subject: [aarlist2] Romance Novel Involving Flowers Used During Wartime?

Hi all,

Knowing that I subscribe to a number of listservs, one of my colleagues on the reference desk forwarded this plea for help to me:

"We have a patron at our library who started reading a book several years ago when a friend showed it to her at the office. The book was then lent to someone else and our patron never finished reading. She has always wanted to find it so she asked us for help. All she remembers is: that it was a romance novel published in 2000 or 2001, that it was about the American Revolution, that flowers or floral arrangements were used to communicate secret plans between rebels." I'm thinking this patron may have her wars confused, but I wasn't the person who spoke with her.

Thanks in advance for any insight. I am not partial to romance novels and I, along with my colleague, had no luck with the usual RA sources.

Regards,

Alison Pruntel

Electronic Resources Librarian

Fauquier County Public Library

11 Winchester Street

Warrenton, VA 20186