Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice older book in great condition. Pages in excellent condition. Images are beautiful bright and vivid. A little corner wear and marking due to age. No notes or highlighting. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> THE PHOTOGRAPHS in this book trace how people’s homes changed from being Victorian to being 20th-century. In 1890 the rooms people lived in were probably as crowded and perhaps as gloomy as they had ever been. By 1910 the knick-knacks had been put away the variegated wallpapers obliterated under plain paint the potted palms turned out and the tables and chairs reduced to a minimum number for use. The transformation was gradual but it was total and by 1910 the houses that the upper and middle classes were living in seem to have far more in common with those of sixty years later than with the houses of the previous decade. And though the photographs in this book illustrate what happened step by step with many of the side-tracks and blind alleys so complete a change does call for an attempt at an explanation. By the end of the 19th century it was universally agreed by everyone who wrote about it and a great many people did that Society was changing. By Society was meant of course that body of ” top people” that seems so clearly recognisable at a distance and which is apt on close inspection to break up into a variety of separate groups. But people in Society knew that they were and people outside it calamity! knew that they were not. In those days Society seemed to matter and more people were trying to get into it than ever before. English Society has always been more open to talent to charm and to money than has that of other countries but at the end of the century it seemed that the last qualification at least was in more prodigal supply than ever before. (SP)