Charleston Style: Past and Present (Hardcover)

~ (Author), John Blais (Photographer), Josephine Humphreys (Foreword)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

From its earliest days as a burgeoning colonial port blending European, Caribbean, and Asian influences, Charleston has maintained a unique brand of southern cosmopolitanism. Charleston Style: Past and Present traces the city's allure through its exquisite and sometimes eccentric architecture, decorative arts, and garden designs, which express a wide range of European and American styles, including Georgian, Federal, Chinese Chippendale, Gothic and Greek Revival, Queen Anne, Eastlake, and more. Author Susan Sully explores Charleston as a medium through which this spectrum of styles becomes transmuted into a distinctive regional mode. Sully's Charleston is a place where antique and modern, fantasy and reality, playfully intersect. During its ascendance as one of America's wealthiest cities, Charleston's most privileged citizens acquired sophisticated, even decadent, tastes that continue to infuse their homes and gardens. After the Civil War, hardship, pride, and nostalgia shaped an aesthetic in which peeling gilt and tattered lace became badges of honor. Thanks to one of the earliest and most energetic American preservationist movements, the past extends into the present in Charleston, and the city's spaces reveal its complex spirit. Charleston Style: Past and Present features nineteen residences ranging from archetypally gracious antebellum mansions to cottagelike dependencies to the iconic Charleston "single houses," with their sweeping piazzas, high ceilings, and tall windows. Also featured are some of the city's most charming gardens, inspired by the formal and picturesque landscape designs of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe as well as by the exotic gardens of Japan. With rich color photography by John Blais and a delightful foreword by acclaimed novelist, Josephine Humphreys, Charleston Style: Past and Present delivers an evocative portrait of this fascinating city.

About the Author

Susan Sully has written numerous magazine articles on southern interiors and lifestyles, and has published Fish & Soup, an illustrated children's book, with Rizzoli. John Blais is a New York-based photographer whose work has appeared in publications for Historic Charleston Foundation and in such magazines as Colonial Homes and This Old House. Josephine Humphreys is a Charleston-based novelist whose works include Dreams of Sleep, Rich in Love, and The Fireman's Fair. She is a former Guggenheim Fellow and winner of the PEN/Hemingway Prize.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: Rizzoli International Publications; 1ST edition (April 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0847821013
• ISBN-13: 978-0847821013
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 9.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #788,930 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rich and satisfying!, November 22, 1999

By	"mrwebber" (Albany NY) - See all my reviews

With the best photography I've ever seen. I put this book on my coffee table and was surprised at how many of my friends in upstate NY have an interest in Charleston, SC. We all agree -- this one is a keeper. I'd recommend this book to anyone even casually interested in Charleston, and to anyone interested in world-class photography (students could study the techniques!).

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Charleston Captured Splendidly!, January 28, 2000

By A Customer

Susan Sully's Charleston Style splendidly captures the unique beauty of my city. Sully's writing is gorgeous, lush and evocative as many of the homes she shows us. Her thorough research is obvious; then she takes the facts and, with words, weaves a beautifiul gossamer fabric representing one ofAmerica's most beloved cities. As a Charlestonian, I was introduced to places I never knew existed. The detailed photographs, artistic and architectural, complement the text. I bought numerous copies to give to friends who have visited Charleston in reality or in their dreams.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars finally, a beautiful book with an intelligent read!, January 28, 2000

By A Customer

Just named one of the ten best books of 1999 about South Carolina by "The Nation," this winner rises above the usual book of stunning photography in the quality of Sully's writing. Her thoughtful and incisive reflections upon a complex city are rendered in delightful, sensual, intelligent prose. All this is compellingly presented in a classic coffee-table stand-out!