A history of the trade that controlled the world and left an indelible impression on our taste buds; a sweeping story of avarice, ingenuity, and exploration, spanning the globe and the centuries in its epic reconstruction of this magnificent obsession. Spices: for centuries the staple of cuisine, remedies and ritual, they have commanded the highest of prices. To this day, Saffron is, per ounce, one of the most expensive commodities known to man. For their sake, fortunes have been made and lost, empires built and destroyed, and new worlds discovered. Astoundingly, in the seventeenth century more people died for the sake of cloves than in all the European dynastic wars of the period. The spice trade dates thousands of years before this though. Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs depict a merchant fleet sailing south to the Horn of Africa and returning triumphantly with a priceless cargo of cinnamon. Only the story of mankind's infatuation with precious metals can rival the story of spice in scope; and only the history of silver and gold rivals that of spice for its improbable and extraordinary combination of discovery and conquest, heroism and savagery, greed and violence.
A history of the trade that controlled the world and left an indelible impression on our taste buds; a sweeping story of avarice, ingenuity, and exploration, spanning the globe and the centuries in its epic reconstruction of this magnificent obsession. Spices: for centuries the staple of cuisine, remedies and ritual, they have commanded the highest of prices. To this day, Saffron is, per ounce, one of the most expensive commodities known to man. For their sake, fortunes have been made and lost, empires built and destroyed, and new worlds discovered. Astoundingly, in the seventeenth century more people died for the sake of cloves than in all the European dynastic wars of the period. The spice trade dates thousands of years before this though. Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs depict a merchant fleet sailing south to the Horn of Africa and returning triumphantly with a priceless cargo of cinnamon. Only the story of mankind's infatuation with precious metals can rival the story of spice in scope; and only the history of silver and gold rivals that of spice for its improbable and extraordinary combination of discovery and conquest, heroism and savagery, greed and violence.
A history of the trade that controlled the world and left an indelible impression on our taste buds; a sweeping story of avarice, ingenuity, and exploration, spanning the globe and the centuries in its epic reconstruction of this magnificent obsession. / This is Jack Turner's first work, but the ambition and lucidity of his writing mark him out as a new star of historical non-fiction / Comparable to such histories as Thomas Packenham's The Scramble for Africa and Aidan Hartley's The Zanzibar Chest / Competition: John Keay - The Spice Route
Formerly a MacArthur Foundation Research Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, and a Rhodes Scholar, Jack Turner has been cook, farmhand, photographer and has lived and travelled in Britain, Spain, Indochina, South America, Syria, Southern Africa and Australia. He has a first-class degree from Melbourne University and a DPhil from Oxford. He can speak and/or read seven languages.
‘Epic and evocative…as readable as it is exotic.’ Independent ‘Splendid. Erudite, urbane and original. An appetising debut.’ SundayTelegraph ‘Sumptuous. Turner is equally at ease in antiquity and the Middle Ages.’ Guardian
'Epic and evocative...as readable as it is exotic.' Independent
'Splendid. Erudite, urbane and original. An appetising debut.' SundayTelegraph
'Sumptuous. Turner is equally at ease in antiquity and the Middle Ages.' Guardian
Spices helped draw Europeans into their age of expansion, but the Western world was far from ignorant of them before that time. Turner's lively and wide-ranging account begins with the voyages of discovery, but demonstrates that, even in ancient times, spices from distant India and Indonesia made their way west and fueled the European imagination. Romans and medieval Europeans alike used Asian pepper, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and mace to liven their palates, treat their maladies, enhance their sex lives and mediate between the human and the divine. While many of these applications were not particularly efficacious, spices retained their allure, with an overlay of exotic associations that remain today. Turner argues that the use of rare and costly spices by medieval and Renaissance elites amounted to conspicuous consumption. He has perhaps a little too much fun listing the ridiculous uses of spices in medieval medicine-since, as he notes in a few sparse asides, some spices do indeed have medicinal effects-and fails to get into the real experience of the people. His account of religious uses, on the other hand, paints a richer picture and gets closer to imagining the mystery that people found in these startlingly intense flavors and fragrances. It is this mystery and the idea that sensations themselves have a history that make the entire book fascinating. Agents, Giles Gordon and Russell Galen. (Aug. 17) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
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