André Le Nôtre: Gardener to the Sun King
by Erik Orsenna

October, 2001
Hardcover, 151 pages
7.5 x 4.7 x 0.8 inches

ISBN-13: 978-0807614877
$22.00 (Can $25.00)

André le Nôtre, chief landscape gardener at Versailles, enjoyed a thirty-five-year relationship with his patron, Louis XIV, the Sun King. This book recounts the life and achievements of Le Nôtre, who was considered to be a genius thanks to his innovative use of perspective and reflective water surfaces, in a distillation of facts and musings. Focusing on Versailles, the book explores the unlikely relationship between "the most powerful of monarchs, to those who will bend to anything" and a master gardener who never for a moment claimed to be anything else.

Erik Orsenna is a member of the French Academy and the suthor of 5 novels. He is the director of the National School of landscaping in Versailles.