Modernism and the Architecture of Private Life

In the late nineteenth century the conventions of Victorian domesticity came under scrutiny by British writers, designers, artists, and architects intent on bringing a modern spirit into the home. Seeking to redefine the spaces of middle-class private life, figures such as E. M. Forster, Roger Fry, Oscar Wilde, James McNeill Whistler, and Virginia Woolf attempted to rethink Victorian design and reconstruct the form, function, and meaning of the home to meet the demands of modernity. In this study, Rosner draws on a host of previously unexamined archival sources and reveals the many personal and aesthetic connections among modern British writers, interior designers, and architects, elegantly synthesizing modernist literature with architectural plans, room designs, and decorative art.

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