Among the many merits of Sara Lodge’s Inventing Edward Lear is the identification of Marie Duval as the author of a previously unattributed book, Calendaria Botanica Ridiculoso (first edition 1877). More on Duval.
Lodge writes (p. 212):
Lear’s ideas gave rise in turn to other nonsense botanies. Marie Duval, the actress and cartoonist, published in 1877 a Calendaria Botanica Ridiculoso. The botany has not previously been attributed, but its similarities to her other nonsense [in particular A Rare and Choice Collection of Queens & Kings, and other things] make its authorship transparent. Her reimagining of nonsense botany has a distinctly female viewpoint…
I have at last managed to get a copy and have posted the whole book in a gallery at nonsenselit.org. Here are smaller pictures for the lazy:
Thank you for this – it’s fascinating – and for mentioning Sarah Lodge’s book on Lear in an earlier post. I have bought it and am reading it with great interest. A wonderful book, and I doubt if I would have heard about it anywhere else. Keep up the good work!