The Language of Houses: How Buildings Speak to Us (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781883285609)

In 1981 Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Alison Lurie published The Language of Clothes, a meditation on costume and fashion as an expression of history, social status and individual psychology. Amusing, enlightening and full of literary allusion, the book was highly praised and widely anthologized. Now Lurie has returned with a companion book, The Language of Houses, a lucid, provocative and entertaining look at how the architecture of buildings and the spaces within them both reflect and affect the people who inhabit them. Schools, churches, government buildings, museums, prisons, hospitals, restaurants, and of course, houses and apartments, all of them speak to human experience in vital and varied ways. The Language of Houses discusses historical and regional styles and the use of materials such as stone and wood and concrete, as well as contemplating the roles of stairs and mirrors, windows and doors, tiny rooms and cathedral-like expanses, illustrating its conclusions with illuminating literary references as well as the comments of experts in the field. This book, which is accompanied by light-hearted original drawings by Karen Sung, is an essential and highly entertaining new contribution to the literature of modern architecture.

Author: Alison Lurie
ISBN-10: 1883285607
ISBN-13: 9781883285609
Publisher: Delphinium Books
Language: English
Published: 08/19/2014
Pages: 304
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.05lbs
Size: 9.00h x 5.90w x 1.30d

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 06/16/2014
Kirkus Reviews 06/15/2014
Library Journal 08/01/2014 pg. 112