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Article: Country House Life: Family and Servants, 1815-1914.
- Article from:
- Journal of Social History
- Article date:
- March 22, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Journal of Social History. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Add Gerard's to the legion of English country house books, but recognize that it is surely a cut above most. Certainly, it is not the coffee table variety. This is also to say that it is not about architecture or the decorative arts but about people. If any thing, its structure and substance are reminiscent of the television show, "Upstairs, Downstairs," although it is grossly unfair to author and book to push this analogy. This subject is one covering a limited time span and recent enough that the book's illustrations are photographs, fascinating ones, and not Reynolds' portraits or paintings of elegant country houses. Then, too, it is not just a narrative about Whiggish ...