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Spice, August 2005
Paperback
The History of a Temptation
Vintage
August 2005
On Sale: August 9, 2005
384 pages
ISBN: 0375707050
EAN: 9780375707056
Paperback
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Non-Fiction
A brilliant, original history of the spice trade—and the
appetites that fueled it. It was in search of the fabled Spice Islands and their
cloves that Magellan charted the first circumnavigation of
the globe. Vasco da Gama sailed the dangerous waters around
Africa to India on a quest for Christians—and spices.
Columbus sought gold and pepper but found the New World. By
the time these fifteenth- and sixteenth-century explorers
set sail, the aromas of these savory, seductive seeds and
powders had tempted the palates and imaginations of Europe
for centuries. Spice: The History of a Temptation is a history of the spice
trade told not in the conventional narrative of politics and
economics, nor of conquest and colonization, but through the
intimate human impulses that inspired and drove it. Here is
an exploration of the centuries-old desire for spice in
food, in medicine, in magic, in religion, and in sex—and of
the allure of forbidden fruit lingering in the scents of
cinnamon, pepper, ginger, nutmeg, mace, and clove.
We follow spices back through time, through history, myth,
archaeology, and literature. We see spices in all their
diversity, lauded as love potions and aphrodisiacs, as
panaceas and defenses against the plague. We journey from
religious rituals in which spices were employed to dispel
demons and summon gods to prodigies of gluttony both
fantastical and real. We see spices as a luxury for a
medieval king’s ostentation, as a mummy’s deodorant, as the
last word in haute cuisine. Through examining the temptations of spice we follow in the
trails of the spice seekers leading from the deserts of
ancient Syria to thrill-seekers on the Internet. We discover
how spice became one of the first and most enduring links
between Asia and Europe. We see in the pepper we use so
casually the relic of a tradition linking us to the
appetites of Rome, Elizabethan England, and the pharaohs.
And we capture the pleasure of spice not only at the table
but in every part of life. Spice is a delight to be savored.
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