The Decoration of Houses (The Leisure class in America) [Facsimile] [Hardcover]

Edith Wharton (Author)

Book Description

Series: The Leisure class in America | Publication Date: June 1975

This book is a facsimile reprint and may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Edith Wharton offers timeless design advice by Annie Groer

If novelist Edith Wharton and architect Ogden Codman Jr. had published their scholarly book, "The Decoration of Houses," today rather than 110 years ago, no doubt it would be a sumptuous coffee-table tome filled with glossy colored photos. But black-and-white sufficed nicely for this influential classic about architecture and design, which has just been faithfully reproduced from the original (Rizzoli and the Mount Press, $35). -- The Salinas Californian - Salinas Ca. May 29, 2007

"Rizzoli has returned this classic 1897 work to print in a beautifully produced facsimile edition, but despite the period charm, it deserves to be read as something more than a period piece." -- Art & Antiques

Here's a trivia question: What was Edith Wharton's first book? If you said The Decoration of Houses, you get a gold star.Originally published in 1897, Wharton's best-selling dissertation on interior esign was reproduced and re-released last month by Rizzoli. What a beautiful, if anachronistic, volume. I love Wharton's keen insights... A must for fans of Edith Wharton and Victoriana. -- Palm Beach Illustrated, June 2007

Most fans of lean, mid-century modern sofas, bark cloth draperies, and kidney-shaped coffee tables grew up with French provincial bedroom sets or baggy shabby-chic slipcovers As soon as children know enough to loathe their parents' terrible taste, they long for something completely different... The 1897 interior design classic The Decoration of Houses, now available from Rizzoli as a handsome facsimile, works on the same principle. Coauthors Edith Wharton and Ogden Codman Jr. skewered the design they'd inherited with the convivial savagery of confidants talking trash about other peoples' taste, which indeed they were. -- Preservation March April 2007 --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Pulitzer Prize-winning American writer and designer Edith Wharton (1862-1937) is the author of The House of Mirth, The Age of Innocence, Ethan Frome, The Decoration of Houses, and many other books. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 204 pages
• Publisher: Ayer Co Pub; Facsimile edition (June 1975)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0405069383
• ISBN-13: 978-0405069383
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars design reflection and illumination, July 21, 2007

By 

Elevate Difference "Elevate Difference" (worldwide) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Decoration of Houses (Hardcover)

Amidst today's seemingly endless supply of domestic guides and treatises on interior decoration, Edith Wharton might be surprised that her The Decoration of Houses (co-authored with architect Ogden Codman, Jr.) would still be as relevant and necessary as it is a century after its first publication. Long before "simplicity" and "classic" became catchwords for branding, Wharton took a public stand against the bland, trite excesses of Victorian décor in America. Favoring the considered, informed and complex processes of design rooted in architectural principles, her graceful humility was matched only by her assertive plea against the contemporary dominance of thoughtless, conspicuous consumption visible in New York society. As she determinately decreed: "According to the creed of the modern manufacturer, you have only to combine certain `good' to obtain a certain style."

Often associated with the frivolity connected to historical descriptions of femininity, this volume might be a surprise for those who prefer to view Wharton as a New York literary powerhouse. While her 40 books in 40 years (many of which were devoted to travels through European residences and gardens) are a testament to the force of her pen, it's the themes of beauty, pleasure, societal indulgence, cultural education and cosmopolitanism in America's modernity that make her analysis, and eventual ruling on the importance of design and space, a necessary extension of her literary thought. As she aptly begins her historical and aesthetic analysis, "Rooms may be decorated in two ways: by a superficial application of ornament totally dependent of structure, or by means of those architectural features which are part of the organism of every house, inside as well as out." And it's through these sixteen chapters that reflect on everything from the front door to the dining room to bric-a-brac that she offers readers a glimpse at the historic function of furnishings, as well as her claims about taste, beauty and the impact of residential design.

The Italian, French and British capacity for decorating in accord with the Grecian edict of "wise moderation," so admired by Wharton, is illustrated by black and white plates. The illustrations also reveal that the author's penchant for "classic" beauty wasn't about recreating kitschy historic facades or stoic sparseness. Rather, a considered pleasure seems to be her goal as she concludes, "There is no absolute perfection, there is no communicable ideal; but much that is empiric, much that is confused and extravagant, will give way before the application of principles based on common sense and regulated by the laws of harmony and proportion." True to her appreciation for sincerity in the application of decorative principles, readers can see the realization of her rules if they visit the Mount, a 113-acre Lenox estate designed by Wharton in 1902.

Recreated by Rizzoli using photographs of the original 1897 pressing, the only change made by the publishers in this edition is the use of the original interior dust jacket as the model for the printed design that now covers the book. But I don't think Wharton would mind, as she truly believed that design was about the external reflection and illumination of what's on the inside.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The Decorations of Houses, August 23, 2010

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DJ - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Decoration of Houses (Paperback)

I was quite disappointed with the quality of this book. I was under the understanding that this book was still in publication. Thus I was expecting a newly printed book, same as the original, not the "photocopy" scan that arrived. Not at all pleased with it. The illustrations are horrible and some of the text is unreadable, very disappointing.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Nonsensical Printing, January 13, 2012

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Pont du Gard - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Decoration of Houses (Paperback)

I am shocked upon receiving this book. Open it to any random page and you will find numerous typos and utter nonsensical letters -- please, do not think I am exaggerating. From the copy I received:

"...in the architecture ofwo

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of the period."

My goodness. Clearly the gentleman who made the positive review posted his review under the wrong edition. I do not understand who or what produced this nonsensical copy of The Decoration of Houses but I think Amazon should immediately remove it from sale.