The World Mine Oyster: The Memoirs Of Matila Ghyka
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Edition: First Edition
Condition remarks:
Condition: Good/Fair. Jacket: Chipped and worn with some minor damage; price clipped. Page Condition: Yellowed with signs of ageing. Markings: No markings. Usual shelf-wear. Tears and chips along folds and corners of jacket. Moderate stains on boards.
A Romanian prince, diplomat, mathematician, and aesthetician — Matila Ghyka lived one of the most extraordinary lives of the twentieth century, and The World Mine Oyster captures its full sweep with elegance and wit. These memoirs chronicle a remarkable journey through the gilded salons of pre-war Europe, the courts of kings, the company of artists and intellectuals, and the turbulent corridors of international diplomacy, all filtered through the singular perspective of a man who was as comfortable discussing the golden ratio as he was navigating royal protocol. Ghyka's prose is refined and cosmopolitan, bearing the stamp of a polymath who counted figures such as Paul Valéry and James Joyce among his acquaintances. The memoir presents a vivid portrait of a vanishing world — aristocratic, intellectually adventurous, and irreversibly altered by the upheavals of two world wars — while illuminating the author's lifelong pursuit of beauty, proportion, and meaning. For those captivated by the intersection of art, science, and history, this is a memoir that rewards with every page.
Author: Matila Ghyka
Format: Hardback
Published: 1961, Heinemann, London
Genre: Biography
Edition: First Edition
Condition remarks:
Condition: Good/Fair. Jacket: Chipped and worn with some minor damage; price clipped. Page Condition: Yellowed with signs of ageing. Markings: No markings. Usual shelf-wear. Tears and chips along folds and corners of jacket. Moderate stains on boards.
A Romanian prince, diplomat, mathematician, and aesthetician — Matila Ghyka lived one of the most extraordinary lives of the twentieth century, and The World Mine Oyster captures its full sweep with elegance and wit. These memoirs chronicle a remarkable journey through the gilded salons of pre-war Europe, the courts of kings, the company of artists and intellectuals, and the turbulent corridors of international diplomacy, all filtered through the singular perspective of a man who was as comfortable discussing the golden ratio as he was navigating royal protocol. Ghyka's prose is refined and cosmopolitan, bearing the stamp of a polymath who counted figures such as Paul Valéry and James Joyce among his acquaintances. The memoir presents a vivid portrait of a vanishing world — aristocratic, intellectually adventurous, and irreversibly altered by the upheavals of two world wars — while illuminating the author's lifelong pursuit of beauty, proportion, and meaning. For those captivated by the intersection of art, science, and history, this is a memoir that rewards with every page.