Green is an intriguing color whose value in the worlds or art and fashion has fluctuated greatly over the years. The ancient Greeks referred to it so rarely and ambiguously that some nineteenth-century classicists thought that the Greeks couldn't differentiate between green and blue. In the Middle Ages, green was associated with fickleness, mutability, destiny and young love, as well as witchcraft, disease, and bad luck. Traditionally, painters used green sparingly, if at all, because green pigments tended to be unstable, and in some cases, even toxic. It wasn't until the modern era, during which green has become a signifier for "healthy", "peaceful" and "ecological', that the color has been given its due respect.

My expectations for this book were high; its author is a distinguished European professor known for his works on the history of colors, and it was published by a prestigious university press. Unfortunately, the book wasn't as well-produced as I had hoped. The reproductions of paintings were beautiful, but the text was marred by redundancy (how many times do readers need to be told that the green is traditionally the color of instability, envy, and Spring?) and there are several careless errors of translation and/or editing. For example, the biblical book of Revelation is referred to incorrectly as "Apocalypse" and a painting of the Roman matron Lucretia misidentified her as "Lucretius" in the caption.

Moreover, Professor Pastoureau did not consider the modern era (apart from the ecology angle) in very much detail. I had hoped that he would comment upon everyday appearances of the color such as the ubiquitous avocado green of appliances in the 1970's, but he did not. He had nothing to say about the significance of chartreuse (aka acid green or neon green) either.

The book's lack of an index was also disappointing.

The color green, which, according to the text, Napoleon loved and Schubert feared, is an interesting subject. I don't think the definitive work on this color has been written yet. ( )