The Desert de Retz, the supreme surviving example of the folly garden, is one of the most documented of France's historic gardens. Since 1990, when the Arion Press published the first book on this garden outside of Paris, the Desert de Retz has been transformed by an ongoing restoration. This edition reproduces, in a smaller oblong format, the material in the original book. Diana Ketcham's text has been expanded and updated to reflect recent scholarship and physical changes to the site. There are also new photographs that show the restored landscape and the complete restoration of the follv known as the Broken Column to its original state as a false ruin.