Description
Butterflies are in the wind these days, literally and figuratively. Scientific discoveries about their migratory behavior and fears for their survival have led to an international effort to observe and preserve butterflies in their fragile environment. Their sheer beauty and variety have resulted in an explosion of butterfly imagery in fashion, jewelry, and the decorative arts. But the interest in butterflies is not new, and it is not ephemeral. Maraleen Manos-Jones, who shares Nabokov’s passion for both literature and butterflies, has in this unique book combined myth, legend, poetry, and art to explore the myriad ways in which humans have perceived this beautiful creature throughout history. Butterflies have appeared in works of art since antiquity, not just for their decorative value but also as spiritual beings, symbolic of metamorphosis, rebirth, love, hope, and freedom. Butterfly goddesses have reigned in cultures as diverse as Minoan Crete and Aztec Mexico, and the butterfly has been a symbol of the immortal human soul from ancient Greece (where the word psyche means both soul and butterfly) to modern Europe. Butterfly dances have been performed by the Hopi, the Japanese, and the Bwa people of Burkina Faso, as well as by Loie Fuller and Eliot Feld. Butterflies have been featured in poems by William Blake, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Pablo Neruda and in paintings by Bruegel, Van Gogh, Picasso, and Warhol. The Emperor Augustus, James McNeill Whistler, Vladimir Nabokov, and the couturier Hanae Mori each adopted the butterfly as a personal symbol. This enchanting collection of writings and images, the result of years of research, celebrates the power of one of the world’s mostdelicate creatures.
