Humans have long turned to gardens - both real and imaginary - for sanctuary from the frenzy and tumult that surrounds them. This book offers an examination of the many ways gardens evoke the human condition. It shows how the garden has served as a check against the destruction and losses of history.

"I find myself completely besotted by a new book titled Gardens. The author... is one of the very best cultural critics at work today. He is a man of deep learning, immense generosity of spirit, passionate curiosity, and manifold rhetorical gifts." - Julia Keller, Chicago Tribune "Mr. Harrison has planted his own garden of beautiful quotations and provocative speculation, and it is an absorbing and stimulating place to spend time." - Jonathan Rosen, Wall Street Journal "This book is about gardens as a metaphor for the human condition.... Harrison draws freely and with brilliance from 5,000 years of Western literature and criticism, including works on philosophy and garden history.... He is a careful as well as an inspiring scholar." - Tom Turner, Times Higher Education "The year's most thought-provoking, original, and weighty garden book is Gardens.... Reading Harrison's book is like strolling down a path through a well-cultivated, richly sown, light-dappled woodland.... Just as in the making of a garden, there's no end to the wonder; the journey is everything." - New York Times Book Review"