By Any Other Name by Simon Morley

By Any Other Name by Simon Morley

This book came out late in 2021, and the subtitle is A Cultural History of the Rose.

Simon Morley is a British artist and art historian. He's now an Assistant Professor of Fine Art at Dankook University in Korea. He is also a keen rose gardener.

I've watched several interviews with Simon. He does a beautiful job of helping us understand the significance of the rose in our world - socially, politically, and religiously - and how we celebrate the rose in our writing and art.

In ancient times, roses were associated with Venus or Aphrodite, the goddess of love, in the Middle East and Asia. This early association with love is why roses are the flower of Valentine's Day.

In Western society, roses were bred in the early 1800s in France and then in the late 1800s in England. Both countries have a long and royal history with the Rose.

Today, the rose is the national flower of many countries, including America, Iran, Bulgaria, Ecuador, Iraq, Maldives, Romania, Slovakia, and England.

Simon Morley's quest for a deeper understanding of the rose led him to appreciate the duality in the meaning and symbolism of the rose. The rose offers incredible beauty and fragrance, but the prickles or thorns mean the rose can bring pain. This complexity of pleasure and pain gives the rose enhanced significance throughout history.

This book is 304 pages of an examination and a celebration of the rose.

You can get a copy of By Any Other Name by Simon Morley and support the show using the Amazon link in today's show notes for $21.