The Age of Comfort: When Paris Discovered Casual--And the Modern Home Began

The setting for this book is Paris in the late 17th and early 18th centuries where the notion of comfort in daily living became all the rage among the ruling aristocracy and the wealthy upper class. Today, we take the notion of comfort for granted such as flush toilets, running hot and cold water, showers, private bedrooms and cotton clothing that gently envelops the body. Back then, the ideal was reflective of the age of magnificence embodied by layers of stiff clothing, standing around or perching on a straight chair. Thanks to some clever and unrelenting ladies and gentlemen in the courts of Kings Louis XIV and XV, there was rapid change that took only one century to take hold. Along with the royal shift came the first foray into investing in "the market" which produced a boom with vast monetary rewards for a new non-royal upper class. Author Joan Dejean is a well-respected authority on France and all that is uniquely French. She delivers the equivalent of a university-level course in this well-written and nicely-illustrated book that is worthy of a place in the library of a designer or a student of design. Reviewed by Ruta Arellano

An excellent overview of a pivotal moment in the history of Western design, too often passed over and taken for granted as simply a change of 'style.' DeJean traces the evolving philosophy of design, which erupted into high modernism in the 20th century, by discussing the changing ideas of the home and how one should live in it. From this, we learn of a new idea of architecture, one that focuses on function, i.e., meeting the needs of its users, rather than merely impressing its viewers. The chapters provide an enormous wealth of material on the origins of much of what we hardly notice today, the "furniture of our everyday lives." Couches, sofas, easy chairs, toilets, night tables, mantels, mirrors - the full range of bric-a-brac and essential items is discussed: the evolution of the decorating "musts" and the formation of modern taste is described. Fascinating!