Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin was the most influential designer in nineteenth-century Britain. This is the first book to offer a complete appraisal of Pugin's life and achievements; it contains twenty-one essays by international scholars and specialists; and superb photography has been specially commissioned, and includes numerous objects and buildings never before reproduced.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

The Victoria and Albert Museum's major current exhibition devoted to the varied activities of Gothic Revivalist A. Welby Pugin (1812-52) lacks a catalog, but this superb publication, published at the same time, not only serves as an illustrated guide to the exhibition but is the best overall modern study of Pugin, surpassing Benjamin Ferrey's pioneering Recollections of A.W.N. Pugin and His Father Augustus Pugin (1861), Michael Trappes-Lomax's Pugin, a Medieval Victorian (1932), and Phoebe Stanton's Pugin (London, 1971). Pugin's extensive drawings in the Royal Institute of Architects and the Victoria and Albert have been published in recent years by Alexandra Wedgwood, who is also one of the major contributors to this volume. Every aspect of Pugin's life and activity--as an architect of churches, houses, and public buildings (the Palace of Westminster), designs for wallpaper, furniture, metalwork, monuments, stained glass, jewelry, ceramics and textiles--is considered, including his writings. Each is discussed in separate chapters by a wide variety of authorities. Excellent black-and-white illustrations and color plates. A glossary of ecclesiastical terms, complete notes. A major contribution, which should have a wide appeal. General; upper-division undergraduate through faculty. T. J. McCormick; emeritus, Wheaton College (MA)