Cuban Elegance [Hardcover]

Michael Connors (Author), Bruce Buck (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2004

At a time when more and more travelers are discovering Cuba, which has been locked away from the outside world for more than 40 years, this lavishly illustrated, absorbing volume offers a completely different view of the island from the one seen by most visitors. This book presents not the picturesque Cuba of Castro's era with its derelict buildings and peeling paint, but the opulent world of the Spanish Creole aristocracy of the colonial period, which has continued to influence Cuban taste and cultural life on a more modest scale even to this day.
Emphasizing the palatial homes and elegant furnishings of the island's enormously rich sugar, cotton, and tobacco barons, Cuban Elegance relates the social, cultural, architectural, and interior design history of Cuba, and of the Caribbean region in general. With an engaging text and gorgeous photographs taken especially for this sumptuous volume, "Cuban Elegance offers a fresh, surprising perspective on an intriguing country.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Michael Connors, author of Abrams' Caribbean Elegance, is a noted authority on the art and life of the Caribbean. He teaches at New York University and publishes widely in the field. He lives in New York City, St. Croix, and Deer Isle, Maine. Bruce Buck is a New York City-based photographer of architecture whose work has appeared in Architectural Digest, House and Garden, and other style magazines.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams (April 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810943379
• ISBN-13: 978-0810943377
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 9.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #214,869 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #23 in Books > Travel > Caribbean > Cuba

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful photos and fine writing about Cuban furniture, June 29, 2004

By 

John W Krogman (Albquerque, NM United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cuban Elegance (Hardcover)

This book is the first comprehensive review of Cuban furniture from the sixteenth through the nineteenth century. Connors and Buck, the author and photographer, spent months touring Cuba and doing detective work to gain access to relics of past eras.

Connors stays clear of the contentious times of Cuba, avoiding this battleground of American politics over the past 50 years. He gained the cooperation of American and Cuban authorities, no mean feat, and produces a veritable feast. He also used archives and collections of Cuban artifacts from other Caribbean countries to gain this masterful view which he presents in a prose that is descriptive but not ornate.

The color and style of Cuban furniture needs only an honest narrative for its story to be told. Connors cites Hispanic-Moorish, African and French influences on the many pieces of furniture sited in rooms lit through mamparas (tinted glass swinging doors) and mediopuntos (fanlights, semicircular windows made of complex forms of stained and plain glass set above doors and windows) of old Cuban haciendas.

This is a beautiful book designed to bring a touch of our hemisphere's elegant beauty into everyone's living room and even our lives. It does to ours and to anyone who owns it.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cuban Elegance, May 26, 2004

By 

G. Montgomery (Massachusetts, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cuban Elegance (Hardcover)

Cuban Elegance is one of those rare books that combines gorgeous photography with knowledgeable scholarship about the architecture, furniture and decorative arts it features. So often, books that are big on style are fluff to read, and books that are written by academics are heavy going and not fun to look at. As someone who writes in this field, I appreciate when people get it right. Michael Connors and Bruce Buck nailed it on this one -- the images throughout the book are as beautiful as the one on the cover, and the text is informative, readable and engaging. They have made it possible for people to have a glimpse of an incredible world that so few get to see -- 500 years of Cuban history and culture as expressed in buildings and their furnishings. Five stars. As folks in the antiques business say, this one's a keeper.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Astonishing, October 1, 2004

By 

A Reader (Memphis, TN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cuban Elegance (Hardcover)

Cuban Elegance is an astonishing work. That Michael Connors and Bruce Buck were able to navigate the bureaucracies to get to Cuba and to the subjects of the book; astonishing that with an admitted paucity of research material they were able to craft a book that reveals the wealth of historic artifacts in Cuba.

Connors' concise, comprehensive and well-researched narrative along with Bruce Buck's beautiful images bring to light the stylistic and historical influences of three centuries of Cuba's heritage.

Kudos to both gentleman for what must have been an arduous task. The fruits of their labors is a book that should be an elegant addition to a great many libraries.