A Perfect Red - Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire

Publié par HarperCollins e-books, le 06 octobre 2009

352 pages

Résumé

"You'll finish [Greenfield's] book with new respect for color, especially for red. With A Perfect Red, she does for it what Mark Kurlansky in Salt did for that common commodity."-Houston ChronicleInterweaving mystery, empire, and adventure, Amy Butler Greenfield's masterful popular history offers a window onto a world far different from our own: a world in which the color red was rare and precious-a source of wealth and power for those who could unlock its secrets. And in this world nothing was more prized than cochineal, a red dye that produced the brightest, strongest red the Old World had ever seen. A Perfect Red recounts the story of this legendary red dye, from its cultivation by the ancient Mexicans and discovery by 16th-century Spanish conquistadors to the European pirates, explorers, alchemists, scientists, and spies who joined in the chase to unlock its secrets, a chase that lasted more than three centuries. It evokes with style and verve this history of a grand obsession, of intrigue, empire, and adventure in pursuit of the most desirable color on earth.

L'extraordinaire saga du rouge - Le pigment le plus convoité

A Perfect Red - Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire

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