Product Description

Edith Wharton's The Decoration of Houses is an invaluable reference, one of the classic works on interior decoration, and a testament to the enduring style of one of America's greatest writers. Written in collaboration with celebrated American architect Ogden Codman, Jr., Wharton's first book is a comprehensive look at the history and character of turn-of-the-century interior design, moving from historical traditions to the distinctive styles of contemporary taste. Published in association with the Mount Press, this beautiful hardcover facsimile is carefully reproduced from the first edition published in 1897 and includes all 56 original plates-illustrating furniture, moldings, and interior styles of the 19th-century-and features décollage edges as well as a new introduction from renowned scholar Richard Guy Wilson. The Mount is a magnificent estate Edith Wharton designed and built in 1902 as a writer's retreat in the beautiful Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #354536 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03-27
• Released on: 2007-03-27
• Format: Facsimile
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 328 pages

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

About the Author
A stunning facsimile of the first edition of The Decoration of Houses, a timeless classic of interior design writing by America's greatest female novelist.

Customer Reviews

design reflection and illumination
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.

Decoration of Houses as a gift, and as an owner
The "Decoration of Houses" allows a comparison of styles from antique to modern, with variations for each time period. I own it, but gave it to my daughter too, since she does set design in New York. The only one tht is better, is one that is out of print. My father used as a decorator in Boston.