The Wisdom of Flowers. Wisdom and Destiny

Maurice Maeterlinck – a Belgian playwright, essayist, and poet, Nobel Prize laureate – is best known for his plays that captivate with a fairy-tale atmosphere and poetic imagination. His most famous play, "The Blue Bird," tells the story of children who receive the gift from a fairy to "see the souls of things." Perhaps the author himself possessed this art, as Maeterlinck's philosophical works are just as enchanting as his fairy tales. The talent of a symbolist poet and the insight of an artist in love with nature allow Maeterlinck to narrate extraordinarily engagingly about mesmerizing worlds, possibly more harmonious than human society. The amazing facts about the lives of various flowers, the description of the complex and cohesive work of a bee colony, or the organization of a termite mound, are transformed in Maeterlinck's exposition from mere notes of a naturalist into a kind of manifesto of the existence of a single higher intelligence that manifests itself in all living beings on our planet. Reflections on the life of plants, insects, and animals, profound conclusions about human existence, history, literature, religion, bold parallels, and unexpected deductions invite readers to ponder the formation of the human soul, the individual's desire to find its place in the surrounding world, and to deepen the awareness of the connection with nature. This edition features selected essays and treatises by Maurice Maeterlinck, written from 1896 to 1926: "The Treasure of the Humble," "Wisdom and Destiny," "The Life of the Bees," "The Buried Temple," "The Double Garden," "The Intelligence of Flowers," "The Life of Termites."