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Zusatztext "There's much to absorb in this sequel to Alison Lurie's The Language of Clothes ! but The Language of Houses is an extraordinarily absorbing book-it wears its learning lightly! holding this reader's attention the way a fine novel does. I was particularly fascinated by the linked chapters on religious buildings and museums." Informationen zum Autor ALISON LURIE , who won the Pulitzer Prize for Foreign Affairs , has published ten novels, five works of non-?ction and three books for children. A professor of English Emerita at Cornell University, she died in December, 2020. Klappentext In the 1980's, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Alison Lurie wrote a meditation on clothing as an expression of history, social status and individual psychology. The Language of Clothes (Random House) came to be highly regarded in the literature of couture and design. Lurie has returned with The Language of Houses, a provocative and entertaining journey through the architecture of houses and buildings and the divided spaces within come to reflect the attitudes and purposes of the organizations and people who inhabit them. What makes a house is in the eye of the beholder, and the word can mean anything from church to office to domicile and more - and relies on the use of materials such as stone and wood and stucco and the roles of stairs and windows, tight interiors and open expanses. Structures discussed are: schools, churches, government building, museums, prisons, hospitals, restaurants, and of course, houses and homes. Filled with literary references and charming hand-drawings, Lurie's new work will appeal to fans of Bill Bryson's At Home, as well as provoke wide review attention for this award-winning author. Zusammenfassung 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....
