“A breakthrough in dahlia studies” on Arcadia by Tom Stoppard

Abstract

For some years the University of Pennsylvania has organized a freshman reading program in which every incoming student reads the same book and discusses it in a small group led by a faculty member (who may come from any School in the University). In September 1995 the text chosen was Tom Stoppard's Arcadia. John Dixon Hunt was asked to talk about the play's references and gestures to landscape gardening history and theory in a series of preparatory or briefing sessions for the faculty who had committed themselves to leading one of the group discussions. The essay grew out of that involvement.