Volume 25, Number 16 · October 26, 1978
Easy Living
By J.H. Plumb
Life in the English Country House: A Social and Architectural History
by Mark Girouard
Yale University Press, 344, 258 illustrations pp., $19.95
Ambition in authors should always be applauded even though ambition in books, as in life, is rarely achieved. Mark Girouard calls his book, quite modestly, Life in the English Country House, but the title conceals more than it reveals of what he has attempted to do. Professor Girouard is concerned to present a history of the architectural evolution of English country houses from the castle and fortified dwellings of the High Middle Ages to the last brave flourish of Sir Edwin Lutyens in the 1920s and 1930s. This evolution, however, is placed in the context of social history and Professor Girouard analyzes the way social forces and changes in class structure molded the buildings of the ruling class and the life which took place in them. He draws on a huge variety of sources and, above all, uses his exceptional knowledge of individual country houses, whose history he has explored over many years.
Review, 2214 words
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