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Title details for The Power and the Glory by Adrian Tinniswood - Wait list

The Power and the Glory

Life in the English Country House Before the Great War

by Adrian Tinniswood
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A spirited history of the English country house in its golden age 
For generations, the great palaces of Britain were home to living histories, noble families that had reigned for centuries. But by the end of the nineteenth century, members of elite society found themselves, for the first time, in the company of arrivistes. Their new neighbors—from chorus girls to millionaire greengrocers to guano impresarios—lacked lineage and were unencumbered by the weight of tradition. 
 
In The Power and the Glory, historian Adrian Tinniswood reconstructs life in the country house during its golden age before the Great War, when Britain ruled over a quarter of the earth’s population and its stately homes were at their most opulent. But change was on the horizon: the landed classes were being forced to grapple not only with new neighbors, but also with new social norms and expectations.  
 
An exuberant story, The Power and the Glory offers a delicious, captivating, and often scandalous history of the British country house. 

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    November 12, 2024

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781541602786

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781541602786
      • File size: 45778 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Kirkus

      November 1, 2024
      Picture books on English country houses are an ongoing genre, but this is a genuine work of history. Mixing research and gossip, historian Tinniswood has written three volumes on his favorite subject. Although this first volume summarizes its long history, the author concentrates on the golden age of the country house between 1870 and 1914, when hundreds were built or drastically remodeled and a great deal of new money was invested in what was widely if not universally believed to be "a supremely attractive, if mythic, vision of the past." British media and magazines such asCountry Life glamorized the country, persuading successful businessmen from around the world to live in titanic mansions surrounded by vast estates. Tinniswood knows his subject, but readers may be surprised to discover that there are no illustrations. A coffee-table book such asThe Country House by David Cannadine might help readers as an additional reference when Tinniswood delves into architectural, interior decorating, and landscaping details. There are the expected topics--gardens, hunting, servants, royal visits, foreign villas, the arrival of the automobile, and modern conveniences. Readers with a taste for action will welcome accounts of country house fires, country house crimes, and owners' often spectacular sexual peccadilloes and divorces. Imported, mostly American plutocrats make their mark, and readers will receive an education in upper-class antisemitism, traditional but not universal and less vicious than the Continental version. An entertaining m�lange of scholarship and scandal.

      COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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