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Loading... Jewels: A Secret History (2006)by Victoria Finlay
nteresting and entertaining look at gemstones and where they come from. I learned that birthstones were invented in 1912 by some jewelers with overstocks of certain stones. There's lots of fascinating lore here. Finlay doesn't waste any time on what is common knowledge, she jumps right into the arcane and the obscure. Her voice is engaging and her style is sure. (  ) satyridae | Apr 5, 2013 |  I did enjoy this book; it was a steady combination of history,travel,geology and social anthropology. It was a very informative book, but I did find, that the author was fairly clinical about how she pulled the threads of the book together, but nonetheless, I did find the book interesting, but it could have been so much better. (  ) AnglersRest | Jan 27, 2013 | I really enjoyed this book, it was well written and engaging with enough detail that you learn something new but not so much that it gets bogged down in details. Each chapter deals with one specific type of gem stone, including ones such as jet that I would not have thought of, and explains how they came to be, their history and impact on the various cultures and times. I especially appreciated the look at the social history of the gems and how they are often still evolving. (  ) Kellswitch | Jul 15, 2011 | Disappointing. This was more of a travelogue/memoir than an organized history of gems. Not as well researched as I would have liked either. ( ) atiara | Aug 22, 2010 | I must admit, I am captivated by jewels: their shine, their brilliance, their color. Thus, I was excited to read a history of jewels. Finlay's is a social history, examining how human beings have constructed the value of brilliant minerals. This is not a comprehensive study. Finlay has chosen a series of case studies, the research for which took her all over the globe, from Australia, to Russia, to Sri Lanka, to the American southwest. This is quite an interesting book, and it certainly does show that these stones that human beings so treasure have no inherent value. This is evident in the changing fortunes of so many stones, which have variously fallen in and out of favor. It also becomes clear through the course of Finlay's work, that stones have, and do, cause a tremendous amount of human suffering. Indeed, in the long history of gems there has been much more misery than fortune. Finlay's history is clearly narrative in nature. She is concerned with telling some of the most interesting stories behind the jewels. It is not a book that analyzes the larger social forces behind many of these changes. Still, this is an interesting book. Finlay gained access to many places most people cannot. She travelled to some of the most unforgiving parts of the world in search of the people who mine, cut, and sell valuable stones. Any jewelry-lover will likely find this book engaging. (  ) lahochstetler | Oct 18, 2009 |
Precious jewels have been an integral part of human history. Since ancient times, they have functioned as decoration and as currency in most cultures. And they are so much more. They carry history, define nations and represent the passage of time.
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0345466950, Paperback)Throughout history, precious stones have inspired passions and poetry, quests and curses, sacred writings and unsacred actions. In this scintillating book, journalist Victoria Finlay embarks on her own globe-circling search for the real stories behind some of the gems we prize most. Blending adventure travel, geology, exciting new research, and her own irresistible charm, Finlay has fashioned a treasure hunt for some of the most valuable, glamorous, and mysterious substances on earth.With the same intense curiosity and narrative flair she displayed in her widely-praised book Color, Finlay journeys from the underground opal churches of outback Australia to the once pearl-rich rivers of Scotland; from the peridot mines on an Apache reservation in Arizona to the remote ruby mines in the mountains of northern Burma. She risks confronting scorpions to crawl through Cleopatra’s long-deserted emerald mines, tries her hand at gem cutting in the dusty Sri Lankan city where Marco Polo bartered for sapphires, and investigates a rumor that fifty years ago most of the world’s amber was mined by prisoners in a Soviet gulag. Jewels is a unique and often exhilarating voyage through history, across cultures, deep into the earth’s mantle, and up to the glittering heights of fame, power, and wealth. From the fabled curse of the Hope Diamond, to the disturbing truths about how pearls are cultured, to the peasants who were once executed for carrying amber to the centuries-old quest by magicians and scientists to make a perfect diamond, Jewels tells dazzling stories with a wonderment and brilliance truly worthy of its subjects. From the Hardcover edition. (retrieved from Amazon Sat, 05 Jan 2013 06:55:09 -0500) The author leads the reader on a treasure hunt for some of the most valuable, glamorous, and mysterious substances on earth. Journey from the underground opal churches of Outback Australia to the once pearl-rich rivers of Scotland; from the peridot mines on an Apache reservation in Arizona to the remote ruby mines in the mountains of northern Burma.… (more) |
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