The Decoration of Houses

Emily Orlando delivers a breakthrough and long-overdue edition of one of the most revealing books in Edith Whartons career and elegantly recreates her codes for American taste. The volume offers multiple visions of the authors influence in the decoration of houses, the aesthetics for the world in which she lived, and her famous coordination with the architect, Ogden Codman, himself. From Whartons distaste for the vulgar to her delight in proportion, Orlando explores the background of the writers early passion for beautiful living as the basis for the moral vision of her fictions." - Dale M. Bauer, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign "Emily J. Orlando introduces us anew to Edith Wharton and Ogden Codman, Jr.s The Decoration of Houses in an authoritative and elegant edition befitting its subject. Orlandos stunning introduction and thorough annotations showcase her deep familiarity with the text and its authors, and illuminate the books composition, contexts, history, and reception, as well as its enduring influence today. The connections that Orlando draws between this early book and Whartons subsequent writing, and Whartons own homes and experiences, are rich and generative. This first scholarly edition of The Decoration of Houses is an invaluable resource for scholars, students, and general readers interested in architectural and cultural history and Whartons gilded age." - Gary Totten, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Emily J. Orlando is professor of English and E. Gerald Corrigan Chair in the Humanities and Social Sciences at Fairfield University. She is the author of Edith Wharton and the Visual Arts, editor of The Bloomsbury Handbook to Edith Wharton, and co-editor of Edith Wharton and Cosmopolitanism.