Home

Walk through five centuries of homes both great and small—from the smoke-filled manor halls of the Middle Ages to today's Ralph Lauren-designed environments—on a house tour like no other, one that delightfully explicates the very idea of "home."

You'll see how social and cultural changes influenced styles of decoration and furnishing, learn the connection between wall-hung religious tapestries and wall-to-wall carpeting, discover how some of our most welcome luxuries were born of architectural necessity, and much more. Most of all, Home opens a rare window into our private lives—and how we really want to live.

Home Foreword
Chapter One: Nostalgia
*Two: Intimacy and Privacy
*Three: Domesticity
*Four: Commodity and Delight
*Five: Ease
*Six: Light and Air
*Seven: Efficiency
*Eight: Style and Substance
*Nine: Austerity
*Ten: Comfort and Well-Being
Notes
Index"Here is a book that will change thew ay you look at your house or apartment—for the better."
—People

"Rybczynski's style is as loose and, yes, as comfortable as a down-filled comforter."
—The Christian Science Monitor

"Sensible and stylish"
—Newsweek

"It's a bracing, irreverent, worldly wise book."
—Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Home is serious, historically minded, and exquisitely readable. It is a triumph of intelligence."
—The New Yorker

Witold Rybczynski of Polish parentage, was born in Edinburgh in 1943, raised in Surrey, and attended Jesuit schools in England and Canada. He received Bachelor of Architecture (1960) and Master of Architecture (1972) degrees from McGill University in Montreal. He has written for the Atlantic, New Yorker, New York Review of Books, and the New York Times, and has been architecture critic for Saturday Night, Wigwag, and Slate. His book include Taming the Tiger, Paper Heroes, The Most Beautiful House in the World, Waiting for the Weekend, and Looking Around: A Journey Through Architecture, City Life and Charleston Fancy. He lives with his wife, Shirley Hallam, in Philadelphia and is Emeritus Professor of Urbanism at the University of Pennsylvania.