The Reddest Rose: Romantic Love from the Ancient Greeks to Reality TV

The deceptively simple through-line for Swedish media personality and activist Liv Strömquist's The Reddest Rose is the question: Why does Leonardo DiCaprio date an endless string of 20-something models? Her answer -- in the form of this collection of well-researched, humorous comics essays -- tracks how philosophers and artists, from the Ancient Greeks to Beyoncé, conceptualized romantic love. Strömquist's signature characters, drawn in a flat, blocky style, ask each other questions and offer sharp commentary as they guide readers throughout history and the change in societies' values, from showing love/loving to getting love/being loved. (Poet Hilda "H.D." Doolittle -- who was so love-stricken by a man taking off his glasses that she believed they viewed dolphins together in another dimension -- lends the book its title.) Lord Byron, Socrates, Byung-Chul Han, Ezra Pound, Slavoj Zizek, Lou Andreas-Salomé, Ariadne, and many others have cameos. For the first time in English, in The Reddest Rose, Strömquist wonders: in a rationalist, consumerist world, can romantic love survive?

Publisher: Fantagraphics Books
Published: 01/31/2023
Pages: 184
Weight: 1.05lbs
Size: 9.50h x 6.80w x 0.70d
ISBN: 9781683964599


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 12/05/2022

About the Author
Strömquist, LIV: - Liv Strömquist was born in Sweden and lives in Malmö. She is a radio host with a degree in political science. An activist, her left-leaning, award-winning comics have been published in zines and magazines. Fruit of Knowledge has sold 40,000 copies in Sweden, been adapted for the stage, and has been published worldwide.Bowers, Melissa: - Melissa Bowers is a translator and editor. She lives in Seattle.