The Decoration of Houses

Edith Wharton, Ogden Codman

Cosimo, Inc., Jan 1, 2008 - Architecture - 280 pages

Individuality in house-furnishing has seldom been more harped upon than at the present time. The cheap originality which finds expression in putting things to uses for which they were not intended is often confounded with individuality; whereas the latter consists not in an attempt to be different from other people at the cost of comfort, but in the desire to be comfortable in one's own way, even though it be the way of a monotonously large majority. It seems easier to most people to arrange a room like some one else's than to analyze and express their own needs. -from Chapter II: "Rooms in General" This classic 1898 manual of interior design is considered a standard reference of the art, and perfectly useful more than a century later. Here, renowned American architect OGDEN CODMAN, JR. (1863-1951) is joined by American author EDITH WHARTON (1862-1937), whose novels, including The House of Mirth (1905) and the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Age of Innocence (1920), took us into the wealthy-and tasteful-New York society she hailed from. Together, they offer timeless advice on such matters as: [ the importance of balance and symmetry [ how to avoid the superficial application of ornament [ the necessity of adhering to proportion [ the proper material for fireplace andirons [ the usages of cornices [ the decoration of windows [ and much, much more.

Contents

• ROOMS IN GENERAL: 17
• WALLS: 31
• DOORS: 48
• WINDOWws: 64
• FIREPLACES: 74
• CEILINGS AND FLOORS: 89
• ENTRANCE AND VESTIBULE: 103
• HALL AND STAIRS: 106
• THE DRAWINGROOM BOUDOIR AND MORNINGROOM: 122
• BALLROOM SALOON MUSICROOM GALLERY: 134
• THE LIBRARY SMOKINGROOM AND DEN: 145
• THE DININGROOM: 155
• BEDROOMS: 162
• THE SCHOOLROOM AND NURSERIES: 173
• BRICÀBRAC: 184
• CONCLUSION: 196
• INDEX: 199

About the author

Edith Wharton was a woman of extreme contrasts; brought up to be a leisured aristocrat, she was also dedicated to her career as a writer. She wrote novels of manners about the old New York society from which she came, but her attitude was consistently critical. Her irony and her satiric touches, as well as her insight into human character, continue to appeal to readers today. As a child, Wharton found refuge from the demands of her mother's social world in her father's library and in making up stories. Her marriage at age 23 to Edward ("Teddy") Wharton seemed to confirm her place in the conventional role of wealthy society woman, but she became increasingly dissatisfied with the "mundanities" of her marriage and turned to writing, which drew her into an intellectual community and strengthened her sense of self. After publishing two collections of short stories, The Greater Inclination (1899) and Crucial Instances (1901), she wrote her first novel, The Valley of Decision (1902), a long, historical romance set in eighteenth-century Italy. Her next work, the immensely popular The House of Mirth (1905), was a scathing criticism of her own "frivolous" New York society and its capacity to destroy her heroine, the beautiful Lily Bart. As Wharton became more established as a successful writer, Teddy's mental health declined and their marriage deteriorated. In 1907 she left America altogether and settled in Paris, where she wrote some of her most memorable stories of harsh New England rural life---Ethan Frome (1911) and Summer (1917)---as well as The Reef (1912), which is set in France. All describe characters forced to make moral choices in which the rights of individuals are pitted against their responsibilities to others. She also completed her most biting satire, The Custom of the Country (1913), the story of Undine Spragg's climb, marriage by marriage, from a midwestern town to New York to a French chateau. During World War I, Wharton dedicated herself to the war effort and was honored by the French government for her work with Belgian refugees. After the war, the world Wharton had known was gone. Even her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Age of Innocence (1920), a story set in old New York, could not recapture the former time. Although the new age welcomed her---Wharton was both a critical and popular success, honored by Yale University and elected to The National Institute of Arts and Letters---her later novels show her struggling to come to terms with a new era. In The Writing of Fiction (1925), Wharton acknowledged her debt to her friend Henry James, whose writings share with hers the descriptions of fine distinctions within a social class and the individual's burdens of making proper moral decisions. R.W.B. Lewis's biography of Wharton, published in 1975, along with a wealth of new biographical material, inspired an extensive reevaluation of Wharton. Feminist readings and reactions to them have focused renewed attention on her as a woman and as an artist. Although many of her books have recently been reprinted, there is still no complete collected edition of her work.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Decoration of Houses
• Authors: Edith Wharton, Ogden Codman
• Publisher: Cosimo, Inc., 2008
• ISBN: 1605204412, 9781605204413
• Length: 280 pages
• Subjects: Architecture / History / General; Architecture / Interior Design / General