In this illuminating book, Witold Rybczynski walks us through five centuries of homes both great and little, in the smoke-filled manor halls of the center Ages to the Ralph Lauren-designed environments of today. On a residence tour like no other-one that delightfully explicates the notion of “house”-you’ll observe how interpersonal and cultural changes influenced varieties of decoration and furnishing, find out the connection between wall-hung religious tapestries and wall-to-wall carpeting, discover how some of our most pleasant luxuries were given birth to of architectural requirement, plus much more.