Caribbean Houses: History, Style, and Architecture [Hardcover]

Michael Connors (Author)

Book Description

Release date: September 22, 2009

Caribbean Houses is a lavishly illustrated account of the development of historically significant houses in the West Indies. Author Michael Connors, a West Indian decorative arts scholar, examines venerable houses that remain as a testimony to the rich history and vibrant lifestyle that was, and continues to be, an important part of Caribbean culture. The book is divided into five chapters, one for each European heritage: the Spanish Antilles, the Dutch Leewards, the English Islands, the French Lesser Antilles, and the Danish Virgin Islands. An authoritative text sheds light on the area’s rich architectural and interior design history and gives the reader a unique view of houses that combine the tradition of European styles with the vernacular island forms and decorative motifs. The lavish new photography captures the stunning exteriors and provides a rare look into the interiors of these historic houses, with exotic tropical hardwoods, indigenous stone, and a blending of local crafts and handiwork with antiques and contemporary furnishings. With the disappearance of so much of the Caribbean’s historic domestic architecture, the colonial residences that still exist represent an important historical record of the Caribbean’s material culture.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A rare look into the interiors of these historic houses, complete with exotic tropical hardwoods, indigenous stone, local crafts and contemporary furnishings, Caribbean Houses is one for the bookshelf." ~AlltheBestBlog.com

"The photographs are glorious... this makes an excellent coffee-table book..." ~Caribbean Beat

About the Author

Michael Connors is a contributor to numerous trade journals, including Art & Antiques and The Magazine Antiques, and he has written many books, including Caribbean Elegance, French Island Elegance, and Cuban Elegance. He lives in New York City, St. Croix, and Deer Isle, Maine.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Rizzoli (September 22, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0847832139
• ISBN-13: 978-0847832132
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 1.3 x 11 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #155,635 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Connors Reaches a New Level December 19, 2009

By Gene Wilkins

Format:Hardcover

With Caribbean Houses: History, Style, and Architecture, Michael Connors displays great breadth as a scholar. While all his former books concern colonial Caribbean decorative arts, Caribbean Houses reveals Dr. Connors' more than adequate knowledge of the era's architecture as well. His prose is as evocative and compelling as usual, and the book's photographic illustrations can only be described as lavish. This book is a must have for anyone even remotely interested in the history of West Indian architecture.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Dr. Connors reopens again a magical world January 7, 2010

By Joe Marr Tee

Format:Hardcover

As with "Cuban Elegance" and "French Islands", Dr. Michael Connors has done an exhaustive job in writing on these houses, some of them abandoned and ignored by their own countries for years. Aside from the text abundant details and the exquisite photos, the fact remains that he has become, undoubtedly, the primary source for a field US art historians have never payed any attention to. Dr. Connors' opus is invaluable to Caribbean art and antiques collectors.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Preserving the Past for the Future December 21, 2009

By Leslie B. Knowlton

Format:Hardcover

They came across the Atlantic for the silver and gold, the exotic hardwoods, the cotton and tobacco, the salt deposits and fish, the lively slave trade and the vast riches from growing sugar cane; the Spaniards, the Dutch, the English, the French, the Danes, all jockeying for position among the 30-plus islands in the Caribbean, starting in the late sixteenth century. With their new wealth, they built vast plantations with "great houses," also called "palacios" (Spanish) and "landhuizen" (Dutch), grand homes that represented amalgamations of styles from their mother countries, designs that were adapted to utilize local building materials and protect their inhabitants from all manners of catastrophes in the new environment - the wicked hurricanes, the relentless sun and heat, the fires and the slave rebellions. But time and history marched forward, and today, most of these colonial-era mansions stand in tatters. Writes Michael Connors in the preface to his latest book, "Caribbean Houses: History, Style, and Architecture," "Their fall from grace has been gradual, as evidenced by a visitor to the islands in the late nineteenth century who wrote: 'Most of the mansions of the planters exhibit fast-increasing signs of poverty, neglect, and decay; and upon more than two-thirds of the estates the great house stands deserted and empty, sometimes falling into ruin, a melancholy monument of former luxury and life, when four-in-hands were frequent upon the roads and there were sounds of revelry in the hospitable halls." Few precious relics survived, and it is to document them that Connors set out to do in a study that the scholar calls "the first comprehensive account of the development of historically significant architecture in the West Indies." The lavish result, all illustrated with gorgeous photographs, does a wonderful job of describing the history, the people, and the forces that defined this bygone era, and helps to preserve for all time their legacy.