Gods Architect: Pugin And The Building Of Romantic Britain - Hardcover

Hill, Rosemary

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0713994991 ISBN 13: 9780713994995

Publisher: Allen Lane, 2007

Synopsis

Pugin was one of Britain’s greatest architects and his short career one of the most dramatic in architectural history. Born in 1812, the son of the soi-disant Comte de Pugin, at 15 Pugin was working for King George IV at Windsor Castle. By the time he was 21 he had been shipwrecked, bankrupted and widowed. Nineteen years later he died, insane and disillusioned, having changed the face and the mind of British architecture. Pugin’s bohemian early career as an antique dealer and scenery designer at Covent Garden came to a sudden end with a series of devastating bereavements, including the loss of his first wife in childbirth. In the aftermath he formed a vision of Gothic architecture that was both romantic and deeply religious. He became a Catholic and in 1836 published Contrasts, the first architectural manifesto. It called on the 19th century to reform its cities if it wanted to save its soul. Once launched, Pugin’s career was torrential. Before he was 30 he had designed 22 churches, three cathedrals, half a dozen extraordinary houses and a Cistercian monastery. For eight years he worked with Charles Barry on the Palace of Westminster creating its sumptuous interiors, the House of Lords and the clock ‘Big Ben’ that became one of Britain’s most famous landmarks. He was the first architect-designer to cater for the middle-classes, producing everything from plant pots to wallpaper and early flat-pack furniture. God’s Architect is the first full modern biography of this extraordinary figure. It draws on thousands of unpublished letters and drawings to recreate his life and work as architect, propagandist and romantic artist as well as the turbulent story of his three marriages, the bitterness of his last years and his sudden death at 40. It is the debut of a remarkable historian and biographer.

About this title

About the Author

Rosemary Hill is a writer and historian and a trustee of the Victorian Society. She has published widely on 19th and 20th century cultural history and sits on the editorial board of the London Review of Books. From 2004-05 she was a Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford.

Review

“A magnificent biography, as sumptuous and intricate as anything Pugin built . . . a properly glorious monument.”―John Carey, Sunday Times (John Carey)

“As a lucid work of architectural history and as the readable biography of a most protean and brilliant man, it is worthy of the best of his buildings.”―Colm Tóibín, Irish Times

(Colm Tóibín)

“A very remarkable book about a very remarkable man . . . This book will interest not only those who delight in architecture, but also anyone who is interested in the Victorian Age.”―A. N. Wilson, Daily Mail

(A. N. Wilson)

“An excellent and detailed biography . . . Pugin changed the face of England forever. This book can be recommended for its disciplined but convincing championship of the most important English architect of the nineteenth century.”―Peter Ackroyd, The Times

(Peter Ackroyd)

“Rosemary Hill has written a superb study of this true romantic and tragic original. It is scholarly, but intimate, warm and readable too, immediately becoming the standard work.”―Stephen Bayley, Observer

(Stephen Bayley)

“This is surely the best biography of a British architect yet written: an enthralling book.”―Simon Bradley, Evening Standard

(Simon Bradley)

“One of the great biographies of our day.”―Michael J. Lewis, A. A. Files

(Michael J. Lewis)

“Rosemary Hill is a wonderful writer. She has not only given us Pugin's story--the life of a hugely important British artist--she has placed his work in a rich and intelligently explained cultural context.”―K. Anthony Appiah

(K. Anthony Appiah)

"Rosemary Hill's book is the first modern biography of Pugin, and it is a considerable feat both in its painstaking original research and the way in which Hill, deals with architectural history, relating Pugin personally to his buildings, justifying brilliantly her biographical approach."―Fiona MacCarthy, The New York Review of Books

(Fiona MacCarthy New York Review of Books 2009-09-24)

About this edition

• Publisher: Allen Lane
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0713994991
• ISBN 13: 9780713994995
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 416