Intelligence of Flowers

Winner of the 2008 Prix de la Traduction Litteraire presented by French Community of BelgiumThe second of Maeterlinck's four celebrated nature essays-along with those on the life of the bee, ant, and termite-"e;The Intelligence of Flowers"e; (1907) represents his impassioned attempt to popularize scientific knowledge for an international audience. Writing with characteristic eloquence, Maeterlinck asserts that flowers possess the power of thought without knowledge, a capacity that constitutes a form of intelligence. Appearing one hundred years after the first publication, Philip Mosley's new translation of the original French essay, and the related essay "e;Scents,"e; maintains the verve of Maeterlinck's prose and renders it accessible to the present-day reader. This is a book for those who are excited by creative encounters between literature and science as well as current debates on the relationship of humankind to the natural world.