Pleasure of Ruins
by Rose Macaulay
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Description
Examines many famous archeological sites and attempts to explain why modern man is so captivated by ancient ruins.Tags
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Member Reviews
An erudite meditation on ruins and their romantic and philosophical evocations. After some general observations in the initial pages, the book settles into a travelogue of famous sites with descriptions of their decaying state by the author, along with liberal quotations from earlier belletrists. Macaulay's love of ruins in their natural state, without restoration or sanitizing, captures the allure of these moldering structures.
The text rambles as one ruin blends with another and it lacks structure. This is a book for browsing and savoring rather than for reading from cover to cover.
The text rambles as one ruin blends with another and it lacks structure. This is a book for browsing and savoring rather than for reading from cover to cover.
would be good reference to have on shelf - in a nice cool attic - worth the price for the photographs
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Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1953
- First words
- The approach to ruins in this highly selective book will be seen to be that of a pleasurist. (From the Introduction)
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)But such wholesome hankerings are, it seems likely, merely a phase of our fearful and fragmented age.
- Disambiguation notice
- Please distinguish between this volume which is Rose Macaulay's original essay and the similarly titled work with photographs by Roloff Bery interpreting an edited text.
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Statistics
- Members
- 175
- Popularity
- 186,235
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (4.20)
- Languages
- English, French, German
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 8
- ASINs
- 9
