The Architecture of Death: The Transformation of the Cemetery in Eighteenth-Century Paris

Etlin, Richard A.

ISBN 10: 0262050277 / ISBN 13: 9780262050272

Published by MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass, 1984

About this Item

Gray cloth covered boards with black lettering on spine, illustrated dust jacket, 441 pp, profusely illustrated in bw illustrations. In the eighteenth century, Paris underwent a radical change in Western attitudes about life and death. The Architecture of Death traces this change through six pivotal decades, and analyzes the intellectual and social concerns that led to the establishment of a new kind of urban institution - the municipal cemetery.-dj Includes bibliographical references (pages 399-429) and index. VG- (foxing spots along upper edge, small tears in dj, interior clean and tight).

Seller Inventory # 173133

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Architecture of Death: The Transformation of the Cemetery in Eighteenth-Century Paris
• Publisher: MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass
• Publication Date: 1984
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0262050277
• ISBN 13: 9780262050272
• Binding: Hardcover
• Seller catalogs:
  • Architects and Firms - European
  • European Architecture

About this title

Synopsis

In the eighteenth century Paris underwent a remarkable transformation in Western attitudes about life and death. The Architecture of Death traces this change through six pivotal decades, and analyzes the intellectual and social concerns that led to the establishment of a new kind of urban institution - the municipal cemetery.

Review

"The story told by Etlin is one of separation, in which the dead are allocated their place outside the walls, at a distance from urban life. It is a complicated story, expressed in ideas, feelings, images, plans, and creations, and it is intertwined with both social and literary history. It gives the very rare pleasure of encountering well-formulated problems and an unobtrusive erudition that go straight to the heart of things and provoke the reader to further thought."- Jean Starobinski, "New York Review of Books"