Posted by Lale on 3/5/2009, 10:40:23, in reply to "Re: The Black Tulip"
72.138.111.169
I finished the book last night.
Indeed my name, lale, means tulip.
And yes, in Ottawa we have a very old and very large tulip festival, every year in May. It is on right now. It is going on until the 18th, so you still have time to come and visit:
http://www.tulipfestival.ca/
Apparently, Ottawa's weather is very suitable for tulips. I have quite a few in bloom right now in my front and backyards. But I cannot be called a tulip-fancier as the term is used in the book, because I just buy my bulbs at the supermarket.
I am, however, a tulip-fancier in another sense: I have many porcelain, ceramic decorative items and paintings depicting tulips. That is because tulips are big in Turkey. Most Turkish art contain tulips. (to see pictures of Turkish art with tulips, type "lale cini" or "lale çini" in google images and you'll see how lale has been part of Turkish culture and art for quite a few centuries now.
You may not know that between 1718 and 1730, the Ottoman Empire had a period called Lale Devri (Tulip Period - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_Era_in_the_Ottoman_Empire) during which rich people ate, drank, composed music, wrote poetry and entertained themselves in beautiful tulip gardens. Of course the poor could only take so much of it and the luxury period of art, tulips and all sorts of excess came to a bloody end.
Tulips came to Netherlands from Turkey. Not from Persia or China or Portugal as Dumas claims.
I knew about the tulipmania, and the first stock market crash due to the tulipmania.
I enjoyed reading David Coward's notes that kept discrediting Dumas' history and horticulture knowledge.
As for the story, I thought it was way too ridiculous to make any sense. I always need a bit of plausibility in all the stories (movies, books) to really like them. I don't think this book was meant to be absurd or funny. It was meant to be taken seriously and there is nothing in it to be semi-believable. So, my final verdict, it was silly and entertaining but I am happy that it was not a very long book.
Lale
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