«Ne «L'idiota», per ammissione dello stesso Dostoevskij, c'è tutto quel che nel suo animo premeva. Sulla vita del grande romanziere russo si stanno addensando le ombre del dolore e della tragedia e il suo genio sta formando i panorami più vasti e terribili della sua opera. È al culmine del suo travaglio creativo. Scrive, nella storia delicata e drammatica del principe Myskin, un romanzo che si interroga sul senso della bellezza della natura umana, e sul tentativo di far vincere il bene sul sopruso e sul male. Le doti di finezza e di crudità psicologica, il senso dello smisurato mistero della libertà umana danno vita a una vicenda affascinante e avvincente.»

Come un'innocente gita al fiume può trasformarsi nella più inimmaginabile avventura della letteratura europea? Semplicemente inseguendo un coniglio bianco con un panciotto e un orologio da taschino. Comincia così, senza stupore, il viaggio di Alice nel paese delle meraviglie, uno strano mondo abitato da animali parlanti e stizzosi, sorridenti e sentenziosi. Ma la sua storia non è solo il capolavoro fiabesco che tutti hanno conosciuto, è anche una fitta trama di significati nascosti e palesi nonsensi, imbastita per scardinare le logiche anguste dei precetti morali. Il viaggio di Alice diventa così occasione, per adulti e bambini, di scoprire la luminosa mutevolezza di tutte le cose.

Anna è giovane, bella e sposata a un uomo che non ama: quando incontra Vronskij, brillante ufficiale, con spavento e gioia se ne scopre attratta. Per Vronskij lascia marito e figlio, ma allo spegnersi dell'amore di lui si rifiuta di tornare sui propri passi e decide da sé quale dev'essere la fine. Il contraltare di Anna è il tormentato Levin, che cerca la sua strada lontano dal mondo aristocratico da cui proviene, nella semplicità della terra, nella fede. Nella vasta architettura del romanzo, Tolstoj osserva i suoi personaggi — Levin in cui mise così tanto di sé, l'amatissima Anna — mentre si muovono alla disperata ricerca di quei pochi, intensi spiragli di luce e di felicità che la vita concede agli uomini e alle donne. Introduzione di Pietro Citati.

An ideal volume for lovers of Venice and architecture aficionados, combining in-depth history of this singular city with more than 100 color photographs and maps. Of Venice's many majestic spaces, none is as evocative and significant as the Piazza San Marco. An authoritative account of the development of the entire piazza complex, through which unfolds the history of the Republic in general, The Genius of Venice celebrates the city's oldest and most important architectural site. Dial Parrott's view of Venice is a heroic one. From their lagoon, the bold and calculating Venetians forged a city that stands today not merely as an attraction for millions, but as a testament to architectural genius: the epitome of what we now call New Urbanism and a shining example of Western communal art. Enhanced by more than 100 illustrations, The Genius of Venice presents the magnificent edifices of the piazza as, in the words of John Ruskin, the living books of history of this iconic urban environment.

The eagerly anticipated first monograph to celebrate the fifty-years-and-counting career of decorating legend Mario Buatta. Influenced by the understated elegance of Colefax and Fowler and the doyenne of exuberant American decor, Sister Parish, Buatta reinvented the English Country House style stateside for clients such as Henry Ford II, Barbara Walters, Malcolm Forbes, and Mariah Carey, and for Blair House, the President's guest quarters. The designer is acclaimed for his sumptuous rooms that layer fine antiques, confectionary curtains, and sublime colorations, creating an atmosphere of lived-in opulence. This lavishly illustrated survey — filled with images taken for the foremost shelter magazines as well as many unpublished photographs from the designer's own archive — closely follows Buatta's highly documented career from his professional start in the 1950s working for department store B. Altman & Co. and Elisabeth Draper, Inc. to his most recent projects, which include some of the country's finest residences. Buatta shares exclusive insights into his process, his own rules for decorating, and personal stories of his adventures along the way.

Essential Colonial Revival-style stone houses in bucolic settings — on hillsides, beside streams — and their inviting interiors, by the architect who popularized the beloved form. Stone Houses showcases a beloved kind of home that many of us aspire to own and live in — a place of warmth and security, of charm and romance. The stone house speaks to a very basic dream of stability and comfort, and the houses featured here represent the epitome of this dream. Built in traditional styles with artful construction and considered design between 1904 and 1943, these gems display the hallmarks we associate with the stone house, here polished and beautifully presented: deep fireplaces, thick beamed ceilings, wide plank floors, and country kitchens. Focusing on the work of the eminent architect R. Brognard Okie, who is credited with having greatly contributed to a popular appreciation and understanding of early American domestic architecture and who has had a lasting impact on American residential design, this book will both enchant the reader and serve as an unprecedented resource.

Accompanying a major traveling exhibition, this catalogue celebrates the groundbreaking avant-garde artists whose works embody the spirit and decadence of fin de siecle and Belle Epoque Paris. Toulouse-Lautrec and La Vie Moderne is a celebration of the work of a generation of avant-garde artists at the turn of the nineteenth century in Paris who fought for artistic liberation against the strict codes of the Academy. Like the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists who preceded them, the Nabis, Incoherents, Symbolists, and Naturalists sought to reinterpret a rapidly changing society that was no longer easily definable. Artists such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Edouard Vuillard, Pierre Bonnard, Mary Cassatt, and Felix Vallotton, among others, render with naturalism and vivacity modern Parisian life and its cafe-concerts, cabarets, and brothels; street scenes and landscapes; and intimate domestic interiors. This rich presentation of paintings, watercolors, drawings, rare zinc shadow-puppet silhouettes, Chat Noir cabaret programs, and key ephemera for Parisian theaters, circuses, cabarets, and cafe-concerts, are accompanied by essays by internationally known scholars, catalogue entries, artist biographies, a timeline of historical events and iconic works, a map of Paris, and a select bibliography.

The work of London-based, Persian-born interior designer Alidad is the realization of a fantasy of splendor in elegant brocade and rich damask. Award-winning interior designer Alidad is renowned for creating interiors of comfort made from a warm, glowing elegance with richness, color, and sumptuous materials. His work is associated with the exacting use of intricately patterned antique and modern textiles, upholstered furniture, and a high quality of craftsmanship. This book presents his unique aesthetic — a kind of controlled glamour that embraces exotic forms, patterns, and fabrics while at the same time evoking the timeless and comforting. Alidad offers a compelling visual survey of his projects, from apartments in London and Paris and villas in Beirut and Kuwait to seaside homes in Sardinia and Cornwall. The work of Alidad is a resplendent tapestry, sewn through with color upon color and texture upon texture. The book also illustrates creatively for the reader Alidad's approach to the practical issues of interior decoration, from architectural alteration and furniture design to choosing appropriate textiles, and it serves as an intimate resource and an entry into the secrets of evocative design.

An unsurpassed collection of the most inspiring minimalist interiors in the world. Minimalism has a richness, texture, and creativity that continues to inspire designers to create a wide range of looks, from minimalist luxury to luxurious minimalism. From rough luxe to stripped down modernist formality to an almost empire-style minimalism, this collection of beautiful photographs showcases breathtaking interiors from around the world that combine a sense of grandeur and drama shaped and inflected by minimalism. Whatever the location, period, or architectural style, all the rooms featured here share a sense of proportion, balance, and minimalist elegance. The range of interiors and properties include a New York penthouse where the minimalist interiors highlight incredible views; a Colorado lodge in a dramatic mountain setting; a Loire Valley chateau; a traditional country house in Litchfield; a Fire Island beach house; a recently renovated baroque palace in Sweden; private estates in California and Vermont, and much more. Nine special sections feature statements from specially conducted interviews with the world's most celebrated interior designers. Complete with an address book of useful contact details, this is an inspiring volume that celebrates the enormous range of possibilities of minimalism in the grand style.

Mary McFadden helped define the look of the 1970s with original clothing designs created from textiles picked up on her travels around the globe. With tunics of hand-painted fabrics layered over floating silk pants and pleated Fortuny-like gowns with elaborate embroidery, McFadden created a sensation in the fashion world. This volume explores McFadden’s thirty-year career, from her debut in Vogue in 1972, launching her as a designer, to her subsequent status as a multimillion-dollar brand, famous for looks inspired by historical cultures as well as by her extensive art collection. McFadden was her own best model and was frequently photographed by legends such as Horst P. Horst, Richard Avedon, Sam Haskins, and Norman Parkinson, among others. Her passion and vision translated into wearable works of art that were as collectible as the antiquities that inspired them. This book features both her stunning portraits and singular designs, as well as the places and objects that inspired her. Unparalleled in her dual identities of fashion visionary and erudite art collector, this volume celebrates McFadden’s inspiration and breadth as an incredibly influential tastemaker.

Selecting favorite rooms from more than fifty renowned designers such as Kelly Wearstler, Bunny Williams, Albert Hadley, Nate Berkus, and Mary McDonald — and shot by the world's top shelter photographers — Susanna Salk offers insightful advice on how to apply basic design principles to interiors. Organized into chapters on balance, color, mixing, accessorizing, arrangements, rule breaking, and whimsy, Salk walks through the process of great design, illustrating how the featured designers made the decisions they did to make these rooms look so great. The book's encouraging, conversational tone, practical tips and ideas, and quotes by the designers themselves explaining their philosophies empower the reader to create stylish, functional, and unique rooms of their very own. Covering a range of styles from traditional to modern, formal to whimsical, and showcasing some of the best work by the best designers of our age, Be Your Own Decorator is a rich resource for the aspiring decorator.

World's fairs were the most important vehicles for debuting advancements in modern living. These renowned international expositions were showcases for design on a national and global level, and they democratized design unlike any previous forum. Inventing the Modern World is lavishly illustrated with two hundred examples of woodwork, metalwork, ceramics, glass, jewelry, and textiles from private and public collections, primarily in America and Europe, many never before published or seen outside of their respective collections. Incredibly diverse but all representing the pinnacle of scientific and artistic achievements of their time, these extraordinary creations range from a monumental 1850s Gothic Revival cabinet to a streamlined glass chair from 1939, to masterpieces of jewelry and objects in glass, silver, and porcelain by Baccarat, Tiffany, Gorham, Cartier, Sevres, and Herman Miller. This unprecedented volume, edited by Jason Busch and Catherine Futter, and with contributions by them and many other specialists and scholars, breaks new ground in the study of decorative arts.

Adored by celebrity patrons and admired by his peers in the industry, Scott Campbell is known not only for his amazing technique and vision as a tattoo artist, but also as a respected fine artist on the contemporary scene. Both Campbell's artwork and tattoo work are informed by timeless trends of new antiquarian style, nineteenth-century hand-lettering, kitsch, and classic tattoo flash. Campbell is considered the tattoo artist of both the trendsetter and the daring celebrity. However, though Campbell has tattooed celebrities from the late Heath Ledger to visionaries like Marc Jacobs, it is through his distinctive aesthetic that he has become a celebrity in his own right. Campbell renders fleeting trends into timeless masterpieces not only on canvas and in sculpture, but also on skin. This book captures both, exemplifying how his tattoo work informs his artwork and vice versa.

A love letter to the cinema from the House of Dior, featuring legendary screen actresses in signature Dior. Embraced by Hollywood and the iconic women who are its stars, the fashions of Christian Dior have been worn by the likes of Marlene Dietrich in Stage Fright, Lauren Bacall in How to Marry a Millionaire, Ava Gardner, Marilyn Monroe, Sophia Loren, Elizabeth Taylor and, more recently, Charlize Theron, Penelope Cruz, and Nicole Kidman. Well before the successes that were to propel Dior to the forefront of the fashion world, the master couturier put his talent to work as a costume designer for the cinema, collaborating with renowned filmmakers and creating timeless ensembles for legendary actresses. Following the untimely death of the designer, the House of Dior's involvement with the cinema continued, from 1958 to the present, with more than fifty films featuring the stars of the silver screen dressed in signature Dior. Combining fashion photography and rarely seen and never before published behind-the-scenes photographs, this gorgeously produced volume showcases Dior's creations for film and the movie stars who brought them to life, and is a must for those who aspire to high style.

This superb volume takes the reader behind the fabulous facades of Venice to explore the greatest achievements of contemporary Venetian interior design and decoration. The residential interiors included here range from fabric designer Mirella Spinella's house, full of Asian influences and the blue-and-white harmonies of the Palazzo Pisani Rubelli, to the cutting-edge geometrics of London-based architect Michael Carapetian and the home of DJ Spiller, who combines high-tech electronics with frescoed ceilings and rocaille wood paneling in an ancient noble mansion. Featuring a lively anecdotal text and stunning color photographs of private interiors otherwise not open to the public, this beautifully illustrated volume is essential for anyone who has fantasized about living in one of the most romantic cities in Europe. This is an enchanting volume for browsers, armchair tourists, and anyone interested in interior design.

This accessible book is a visual guide to understanding and identifying architectural styles and engineering techniques of all types of bridges, from ancient Roman arch bridges and nineteenth-century truss bridges prevalent in the United States, to the latest high-design cantilever and suspension bridges of the moment. It explores the elegant and varied ways in which engineers and architects have designed ever longer yet less heavy bridges, devising new methods of construction along the way. Illustrated throughout with detailed line drawings and cross sections, including dramatic images of the world's iconic bridges, this charming guide still fits in a pocket or purse — perfect for anyone who likes to explore the dynamic bridges and built environment on foot.

Tomboys are confident, rebellious, and adventurous. They are bold, brazen, fierce — and sexy. They aren't known for following rules, they are known for doing — and wearing — whatever they want. Tomboy captures the tomboy's style, her je ne sais quoi, her wardrobe, and most importantly, her spirit. Throughout the twentieth century, the mass marketing of gender stereotypes meant tomboys cropped up against the odds, trends, and ads. As menswear-inspired fashions for women have exploded into the mainstream under the helm of designers and stylists ranging from J.Crew to Rag & Bone to Boy by Band of Outsiders, acceptance of both the word tomboy and the women associated with its edge has been set into play. But a tomboy is not just about style — tomboys are measured in equal parts wardrobe and spirit. A visual history that chronicles the past eighty years of women who blur the line between masculinity and femininity, Tomboy explores the evolution of the style and its icons. Vivid commentary illuminates the tomboy's history and captures a diversity of women who are bound together by their inherent ability to seamlessly blend a rugged sensibility with classic, understated elegance.

Named one of the most romantic movies of the past twenty-five years by Entertainment Weekly, Dirty Dancing is a touchstone in the lives of generations of moviegoers. Now, for the first time, millions of fans have the opportunity to own the first-ever book celebrating the magic, music, and memories of the seminal film. With photographs, reminiscences from cast and crew, memorable quotes, trivia, and song lyrics, this gift-able package is a perfect and brand-new way to relive the film. Dirty Dancing is a timeless love story set in the summer of 1963 when Baby, an innocent seventeen-year-old, meets Johnny, a dashing hotel dance instructor at Kellerman's Catskills resort. Its passionate story line and alluring dance numbers made the film a box-office hit and pop-culture phenomenon. Though the film launched the careers of stars Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey, and won an Academy Award (R), a Golden Globe (R), a Grammy Award (R), and an Independent Spirit Award (R), it is best known for being an undeniably loved, oft-quoted piece of American cinematic history. With the recent passing of Patrick Swayze, the twenty-fifth anniversary of the film takes on a new meaning and poignancy. This official celebration of the film, the stars, and the time is a must-have for any of the millions of people who love the film.

Photography collides with gravity-defying acts in this sensual and mesmerizing collection of photographs that capture the explosive energy and beauty of bodies. In this extraordinary suite of images by Acey Harper, the energy and beauty of nude female and male bodies-devoid of costumes, greasepaint, stage sets, and lighting-are photographed stripped bare (figuratively and literally), revealing the acrobats' art, craft, and emotions. The beautiful, well-trained, and highly flexible bodies are captured in settings from the natural (beaches in the Marin Headlands, forests in Vermont, the Black Rock Desert) to the gritty urban (a New Jersey steel mill, San Francisco streets, the New York subway). In three captivating essays, Harriet Heyman, well-schooled in trapeze arts, describes firsthand what it feels like to train as an acrobat and what motivates these dedicated artists.

A vibrant study of one of the iconic figures of twentieth-century design, whose Romantic, whimsical, and wholly original style influenced a generation of architects and decorators. Oliver Messel was one of England's foremost interior designers of the twentieth century, whose work also spanned the worlds of the stage design, film, and architecture. Born into a creative family of wealthy bankers, his career began in 1925 designing for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. He eventually became an internationally celebrated designer, branching out into drama, film, opera, interior design, textiles, and architecture. Romanticism and eccentricity were hallmarks of Messel's style. His sets were famed for their exquisite delicacy, impossible detail, subtlety of color, and inventive use of materials. From the 1930s to the postwar period, Messel explored the fields of interior design and architecture, eventually designing numerous houses built on the islands of Mustique and Barbados for the jet set of the 1960s and '70s, among them Antony Armstrong-Jones (Earl of Snowdon) and Princess Margaret. Oliver Messel is filled with previously unpublished images that chronicle a unique, eccentric, and, until now, largely overlooked oeuvre that reached across several mediums and continues to influence insiders from the worlds of interior design, architecture, and fashion. Edited by Thomas Messel with an introduction by Lord Snowdon, an epilogue by Anthony Powell and texts by Stephen Calloway, Keith Lodwick, Jeremy Musson, and Sarah Woodcock.