Entertaining,unexpected, and full of charm, the follow-up to Jessica Kerwin Jenkins' Encyclopediaof the Exquisite presents a miscellany of engaging stories, detailing theintriguing customs, traditions, and guilty pleasures pursued throughout theages.
All the Time in the World takes its cue from aniconic component of medieval life, the book of hours, which prescribed certainreadings and contemplations for certain parts of the day throughout the year.Divided into more than seventy-five entries, All the Time in the World isbrimming with witty bons mots, interesting etymologies, and arresting anecdotesencompassing an array of cultures and eras. Subjects covered include thedaylong ceremony of laying a royal Elizabethan tablecloth; the radicalizationof sartorial chic in 1890s Paris; Nostradamus' belief in the aphrodisiac powerof jam; the sensuous practice of sniffing incense in fifteenth-century Japan;the American fascination with flaming desserts; the short-lived artisticdiscipline of "lumia," or visual music; the evolution of coffee from areligious ritual to a forbidden delight in the Middle East; Henriette d'Angeville'sfearless and wine-fueled ascent of Mont Blanc; the elaborate treasure huntsconcocted by London's Bright Young Things; and the musical revolution known asbebop. An antidote to the contemporary cult of "getting things done," Allthe Time in the World revives forgotten treasures of the past whileinspiring a passion for good living in the present.
