Kids Library Home

Welcome to the Kids' Library!

Search for books, movies, music, magazines, and more.

     
Available items only
Print Material
Author Dakers, Caroline, author.

Title Fonthill recovered : a cultural history / edited by Caroline Dakers.

Publication Info. London : UCL Press, 2018.
©2018

Copies

Location Call No. OPAC Message Status
 Axe JSTOR Open Ebooks  Electronic Book    ---  Available
Description 1 online resource (xxvi, 402 pages) : illustrations (some color), maps (some color), plans (some color)
text txt rdacontent
computer c rdamedia
online resource cr rdacarrier
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 349-396) and index.
Contents Introduction / Caroline Dakers -- Part one. The narrative -- The early history of Fonthill / David Roberts -- Fonthill from the Middle Ages to 1744 : the first Fonthill House / Neil Burton -- The Beckford era / Amy Frost -- The break-up of the Fonthill estate ; Fonthill in the nineteenth century ; Fonthill in the twentieth century ; Out of the ruins : new houses at Fonthill / Caroline Dakers -- Part two. The essays -- The geophysical survey west of Fonthill Lake / David Roberts -- The landscape of Fonthill / Min Wood -- The early paintings of Fonthill / Jeannie Chapel -- The Cottington and Bradshaw burials in Westminster Abbey / Susan Jenkins -- The wealth of the Beckfords / Sidney Blackmore -- The landscape at Fonthill : an assessment of the grottoes and their builders / Michael Cousins -- William Thomas Beckford : between dalliance and duty / Lawrence Klein -- Reading Vathek and Fonthill Abbey : William Beckford's architectural imagination / Peter N. Lindfield and Dale Townshend -- Fonthill and its Maecenae : works of art lost and found / Martin P. Levy -- Little Ridge / Michael Drury -- The Smithsons at Upper Lawn Pavilion / Amy Frost -- Fonthill Abbey, terror and videogames at the British Library / Greg Buzwell -- Epilogue / Caroline Dakers.
Summary Fonthill, in Wiltshire, is traditionally associated with the writer and collector William Beckford who built his Gothic fantasy house called Fonthill Abbey at the end of the eighteenth century. The collapse of the Abbey's tower in 1825 transformed the name Fonthill into a symbol for overarching ambition and folly, a sublime ruin. Fonthill is, however, much more than the story of one man's excesses. Beckford's Abbey is only one of several important houses to be built on the estate since the early sixteenth century, all of them eventually consumed by fire or deliberately demolished, and all of them oddly forgotten by historians. Little now remains: a tower, a stable block, a kitchen range, some dressed stone, an indentation in a field. 'Fonthill Recovered' draws on histories of art and architecture, politics and economics to explore the rich cultural history of this famous Wiltshire estate. The first half of the book traces the occupation of Fonthill from the Bronze Age to the twenty-first century. Some of the owners surpassed Beckford in terms of their wealth, their collections, their political power and even, in one case, their sexual misdemeanours. They include Charles I's Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the richest commoner in the nineteenth century. The second half of the book consists of essays on specific topics, filling out such crucial areas as the complex history of the designed landscape, the sources of the Beckfords' wealth and their collections, and one essay that features the most recent appearance of the Abbey in a video game.
Note Print version record.
Subject Beckford, William, 1760-1844 -- Homes and haunts -- England -- Wiltshire.
Bickford family.
Fonthill Abbey -- History.
Beckford, William, 1760-1844 https://id.oclc.org/worldcat/entity/E39PBJpV44YtJCBMG4vKWVPJDq
Bickford family
Fonthill Abbey
Authors, English -- Homes and haunts -- England -- Wiltshire.
Wiltshire (England) -- Intellectual life.
Wiltshire (Angleterre) -- Vie intellectuelle.
Conservation, restoration & care of artworks.
Architecture.
History of architecture.
Museology & heritage studies.
Cultural studies.
Conservation of buildings & building materials.
History of art -- art & design styles.
History of art & design styles: c 1600 to c 1800.
Art & design styles: Baroque.
Art & design styles: Classicism.
History of art & design styles: c 1800 to c 1900.
Art & design styles: Romanticism.
Art & design styles: Pre-Raphaelite art.
History of art & design styles: from c 1900 -.
ARCHITECTURE -- History -- Renaissance.
Authors, English -- Homes and haunts
Homes
Intellectual life
England -- Wiltshire https://id.oclc.org/worldcat/entity/E39PBJmDdGJqkMfG9TRWCgwBfq
Genre/Form History
Other Form: Print version: Dakers, Caroline. Fonthill recovered. London : UCL Press, 2018 1787350460 (OCoLC)1007747596
ISBN 9781787350458 (electronic bk.)
1787350452 (electronic bk.)
9781787350441 (electronic bk.)
1787350444 (electronic bk.)
1787350460
9781787350465
1787350479
9781787350472
9781787350434 (mobi)
9781787350427 (html)
Standard No. AU@ 000066239150
AU@ 000074097093
AU@ 000063407978

 
    
Available items only