The Memory Palace: A Book of Lost InteriorsA brilliant, ambitious follow–up to The Secret Lives of Buildings, in which Hollis turns his focus from the great architectural constructions of the past to the now–vanished chambers they once contained. The rooms we live in are always more than just four walls. As we decorate these spaces and fill them with objects and friends, they shape our lives and become the backdrop to our sense of self. one day, the structures will be gone, but even then, traces of the stories and the memories they contained will persist. In this dazzling work of imaginative reconstruction, edward Hollis takes us to the sites of great abodes now lost to history and piecing together the fragments that remain, re–creates their vanished chambers. From Rome's palatine to the old palace of Westminster and the petit Trianon at Versailles, from the sets of MGM studios in Hollywood to the pavilions of the Crystal palace and the author's own grandmother's sitting room, The Memory Palace is a glittering treasure trove of luminous forgotten places and the alluring people who lived in them. |
Contents
Regia | |
A Table for Games | |
A Hall | |
A Cabinet of Curiosities | |
A Clock | |
French Grey | |
Cabinet de la Chaise | |
A Great Exhibition | |
A Gilded Cage | |
A Crystal Palace | |
A | |
A Cloud | |
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS | |
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Common terms and phrases
Abbey accessed 12 April ancient Anna Comnena Appartement architecture Arthur Augustus author’s own translation building built cabinet castle catalogue century chair clock Comnena contained coronation cottage court Crystal Palace curtains decor Doll’s House door dress Duc de Saint-Simon Emperor Empire enchanted everything exchequer Exhibition fire fireplace furniture gilded glass Google grandmother grandmother’s Granny Granny’s hall horn Household Words interior inventory King’s Bench knew Koh-i-noor Kunstkammer live Louis XIV Lupercal Lupercalia magic marble Marie Antoinette Mario Praz memory palace mirror Molière museum never no-one Nolhac once painted Palace of Industry Palatine Palatine Hill play Plutarch Prague Praz Purple Room Queen quoted in Fay remember remind Roman Rome royal Rudolf Rudolf II Salteena Scarlett screen seat Simon Sparks sitting room stone story Suetonius tablinum television theatre There’s things throne turned Unknown Collection velvet Versailles walls watch Westminster wonder wrote