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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Victorian country homes and the people who lived in them,
By
This review is from: The Victorian Country House (Hardcover)
The country houses built in Britain during the mid- and late-19th centuries, as Mark Girouard, notes in this book, are monuments to their age. Built for the Victorian country gentleman, they reflected the values and priorities of his class, while their development speaks to the changing tastes and technologies of the period. In taking these houses as his subject, the author seeks to offer insight not just into the buildings but into a social class that dominated the age and whose influence can still be felt in many ways today.
Girouard divides the book into three parts. The first offers a general overview of Victorian country houses, including their design, construction, and layout. This allows him to provide some generalities about Victorian country homes, as well as charting their evolution throughout the period. He follows this in the second part by detailing 23 houses built during the era. Scattered throughout Great Britain and Ireland, they serve as case studies, with their individualized descriptions illustrating the assertions made earlier in the book. The remaining homes built during the era are listed in a catalog that comprises the final third of the work, giving readers a complete list of every one of the homes and their subsequent fate. Generously illustrated with photographs of the houses and supplemented with floor plans, maps, and biographical details of the architects, Girouard's book is a lavish study of its subject. Written in a clear style, its pages offer a comprehensive synopsis of the evolution of Victorian country abodes, one that provides many interesting details about their development. Though written over thirty years ago, it remains a useful starting point for anyone interested in the country houses and in what they reveal about the Victorian elite.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Lucid and informative text coupled with Great Pictures:,
By John "Silence is Golden" (New York City) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Victorian Country House (Hardcover)
Even though this book was written almost 30 years old it is still one of the best books that covers the subject of the Victorian Country House. The author knows his subject and covers a wide range in size and style of 31 houses from the well known to the obscure with some color but with mainly black and white pictures. Overall, the pictures are excellent so do not be put off by this fact.The first section of the book covers the mind set of who,how and why these architectural gems and monstrosities were created.The dichotomy of old architectural styles such as "Gothic" using solid stone construction was combined with the Victorian mania for new technology including types of central heating, iron and steel framing, modern bathroom facilities, piped water and draft proof windows is very informative and well written.The sturdy, overwhelming confidence of the architecture of the early to mid-victorian eras gradually changes to a more discreet and less showey series of styles and smaller houses. He concisely covers the architects who designed the homes,their training, world view and the reason why built as they did often in relation to the status sought by its new owner. Topics such as the rigid segegration of the formal, living and service areas, servants and their problems, fire prevention, the stigma of smells from the kitchen, heat,lighting and air quality and the new problem of cigar and cigarette smoking are amoung the items that are examined. The design and purpose of the homes being constucted is reviewed in relation to the status of the owners - mostly for the new rich who were building houses as their reward / enrichment as their status symbol for the triumph of the United Kingdom's 19th century industrial and financial muscle with which they would copy the land owning aristocratic life style. This is a highly readable and outstandingly researched book and I give it 5 stars and highly recommend it.
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