In Ruins - Hardcover

Woodward, Christopher

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0375421998 ISBN 13: 9780375421990

Publisher: Pantheon Books, 2002

Synopsis

We live in a world of relentless progress, and yet we cannot pull ourselves away from the enchantment of what once was: the hold that an abandoned building can exert on us, the spell cast by the remains of past settlement. In Ruins is a meditation on ruins and, most particularly, a history of our fascination with them.
When we contemplate ruins, Woodward suggests, we contemplate the prospect of the future. Ruins are also the jigsaw pieces of what once was, the clues to a past whose allure is heightened by the fact that it has vanished. And, finally, Woodward shows us how ruins serve as the source of inspiration for the artist who sees beauty in decay and desolation; he quotes by way of example what he calls the finest sonnet Shelley ever wrote: "Round the decay/Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare/The lone and level sands stretch far away."

About this title

Review:

"This book itself is marvellous proof that the prospect of ruins can elicit the finest cadences of the language, whereby a languorous and clamant prose is drawn out of the spectacle of desuetude and decay-In Ruins is a rich and absorbing volume" (Peter Ackroyd The Times)

"Woodward ravishes the reader with the sudden twists and turns of his elegant narrative as it moves in whatever direction he wishes it to go-Woodward's infectious enthusiasm for his subject will send his readers in many new directions" (Frances Spalding Sunday Times)

"Christopher Woodward's paean of praise to the ruin fizzes with felicitous detail, anecdote, literary reference and art history-An enchanting and informative voyage" (Evening Standard)

"An enchanting kaleidoscope of ruins from all times, cultures, and places, is full of stimulating juxtapositions" (Country Life)

Book Description:

‘This book itself is marvelous proof that the prospect of ruins can elicit the finest cadences of the language... a rich and absorbing volume’ Peter Ackroyd, The Times

About this edition

• Publisher: Pantheon Books
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0375421998
• ISBN 13: 9780375421990
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 280