«Delitto e castigo» e un romanzo giallo? Gli ingredienti ci sono tutti: un delitto, un delinquente e un investigatore, oltre a un ambiente complesso e misterioso come Pietroburgo. Ma, come giallo, e un ben strano romanzo: all'inizio assistiamo al delitto, sappiamo quindi chi e il delinquente, e il resto del libro, la sua maggior parte, e dedicata a un'inchiesta in cui l'investigatore, non meno del lettore, conosce gia il colpevole. Eppure, se la prima parte, quella del delitto, e piena di febbrile tensione, le parti successive sono addirittura convulse. Scrivendo il piu geniale romanzo poliziesco che si conosca, Dostoevskij dunque ha violato le leggi del «genere», e prima di tutto la legge per cui la scoperta finale dell'assassino annulla tutto l'intrigo che a quel risultato ha portato, complicando insieme il percorso verso di esso. Delitto e castigo invece riceve nuova luce a ritroso dal suo finale e permane in tutta la sua ricchezza di significati.»

Jean-Michel Frank was perhaps the most influential Parisian designer and decorator of the 1930s and 1940s, inspiring such varied talents as Andree Putman and Bonetti and Garouse. Frank established his reputation and signature look with the design of the Paris apartment of the Vicomte Charles de Noailles. The Noailles were leading progressives of their day and patrons of the major painters of Paris. Frank's style of understated luxury — vellum-sheathed walls, bleached leather, lacquer and shagreen — perfectly complemented the Picassos and Braques on the walls. Frank's blocky, rectangular club chairs and sofas have been endlessly copied and produced by many admirers. He is credited for the design of the modern Parsons table, a stark form that Frank embellished with the most luxurious finish. Admiringly described by the French le style Frank, his look continues to exert its influence through the powerful combination of the simplest forms and the most exquisite materials to produce objects that are truly noble and utterly modern.

Accompanying Rizzoli's best-selling Frank Lloyd Wright: The Houses, this exceptional publication features Wright's major projects and programs, including such masterpieces as the Guggenheim Museum, Marin County Civic Center, Unity Temple, Johnson Wax, Taliesin, and Taliesin West, to name only a few. Also included is stunning archival imagery of the great demolished buildings, such as the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, as well as inspiring visions of the great unbuilt work drawn by Wright, including The Baghdad Opera House and The Mile High Illinois, among others. Extensive, all new color photography shows the buildings to an extent rarely seen (including such little-known gems as Beth Shalom Synagogue, Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, and Lindholm Gas Station). Frank Lloyd Wright: The Buildings invites a reevaluation of Wright's work and is a must-have for anyone interested in this very important American architect.

Tord Boontje incorporates a romantic, artisanal sensibility to contemporary industrial and product design, drawing from a rich graphic tradition to create objects of exceptional beauty and delicacy. One of the most original and innovative product and furniture designers working today, Boontje is an artist and a craftsman, and in designs for Swarovski, Artecnica, and Moroso, his lamps, chairs, fabric designs, paper products, and art installations have vaulted him into the top ranks of contemporary design culture. Featured in headline exhibitions at the Milan Furniture Fair, the Victoria and Albert Musem and Art Basel: Miami, the unique paper creations and furniture developed by Boontje have become global objects of desire, spawning a cult following among collectors and design consumers. Lavishly illustrated with over 300 sketches, concept renderings, and photographs, the book is a comprehensive visual document of the designer's work and an art object in itself, featuring a number of custom printing effects-stencils, perforated and die-cut pages, and textured and woven details-that capture the intricacy of Boontje's approach to pattern-making.

California Romantica features the most important, yet rarely seen, residential exemplars of the California Mission and Spanish Colonial styles, by such noted architects as George Washington Smith, Wallace Neff, Richard Requa, Lilian Rice, and Paul R. Williams, among others. From whitewashed stucco walls and cloistered patios to tile roofs and sumptuous gardens, each house shown is a rare masterpiece, splendidly appointed with authentic Monterey furniture, California tile, and Navajo rugs. Among the magnificent seaside estates, canyon villas, and courtyard bungalows shown is Diane Keaton’s former home in Beverly Hills, which she thoughtfully restored with noted designer Stephen Shadley, and for which she has been recognized as a committed preservationist. She brings her cinematic eye, a keen sense of natural drama, and a profound appreciation for the nuances of shadow and light to the elucidation of these buildings, through the selection of specially commissioned photography. Authoritative text by D. J. Waldie lucidly explicates the architecture and provides an intimate tour of a historic and distinctly Californian lifestyle.

New York is famously rich in diversity, a city where you can find cooks from every corner of the globe down each street. The city's gourmet shops dazzle all five senses and entice you to taste new delicacies. Gourmet Shops of New York captures this unique experience in gorgeous photos and authentic recipes. Here you will discover the most seductive culinary treasures to be found only in New York. One hundred of the best-loved and most-visited gourmet destinations, from neighborhood jewels to exotic superstores are explored in fascinating detail-from the sparkling cases of cheeses at Dean & Deluca to the overwhelming spice shelves at Kalustyans. Secrets and stories from behind the counters provide tips on using and preparing different special foods, making the book as useful as it is beautiful. Sixty one-of-a-kind recipes bring home the rewards of New York's unrivaled food culture. For discerning eaters everywhere, Gourmet Shops of New York inspires the imagination and makes a great gift or souvenir for anyone with a taste for the best.

The House of Lanvin evolved from the creative force and remarkable energy of an extraordinary woman, Jeanne Lanvin. Her design career survived fifty-six successful and productive years. Lanvin is the oldest surviving couture house, in near-continuous existence from 1909 through the present day. Her body of work includes millinery, children’s wear, haute couture, fragrances, furs, lingerie, menswear, and interior design among others. The continuous public appeal and the youthful image of these couture creations are lasting aspects of Madame Lanvin’s career. At the heart of this book are key collections from 1909 through 1946, the year of Lanvin’s death. Original fashion illustrations, beading and embroidery swatches play a crucial role in demonstrating her intricate, creative, and innovative techniques. The house of Lanvin is currently experiencing a period of great acclaim, emerging as a darling of the press, Hollywood, and the larger fashion community. With the most modern of efforts, Alber Elbaz, the current design director, is drawing from the rich Lanvin tradition to create an award-winning collection that at once evokes, reveres, and reinvents the intentions of its founder.

From the editors of Style.com, the hub of runway buzz, comes this savvy look at the individuals who propel the fashion world forward and declare what’s hot and what’s not. Called upon by designers, editors, photographers, and celebrities, stylists have a sixth sense for what is now and next in the fashion ether. Featuring sixteen of today’s top tastemakers, Stylist focuses on these fashion insiders whose precocious sense for the next big thing often results in trends of global proportions. Organized by stylist and featuring the photography of such luminaries as Cecil Beaton, Richard Avedon, Steven Meisel, and Annie Leibovitz among others, this book documents the work and contributions of each stylist through photographs of their creative output and inspirations, and illustrates their distinctive taste, individual flair, and talent for igniting global fashion fervor. Selected for their originality and, in many cases, enduring fame, each stylist included in this volume has reached the pinnacle of success in their chosen métier. Author Sarah Mower’s interviews with the most influential stylists distill for us through conversation and example the fine art of the fashion pronouncement and what it means to be at the threshold of the cutting edge.

A master of light, a genius with details and materials, and a connoisseur of art, Ugo di Pace established his reputation as one of the leading architects and interior designers in Brazil with a stunning series of homes. In addition to designing breathtakingly elegant interiors, di Pace is a furniture designer, art and design collector, and a student of contemporary Brazilian culture. He has developed a unique Brazilian style, blending modern design and Brazilian materials with French, English, and Venetian elements. His career began in Italy and matured when he moved to São Paulo in 1951 to open an art and antiques gallery. Richly illustrated with new color photography, Ugo di Pace: Interiors brings this modern master and the distinctive design sensibility of Brazil to a wider audience and inspires all to infuse their homes with the style of Brazil.

This lavishly illustrated volume documents the residential works of master architect Richard Meier.

The divergent personalities profiled in this book have collectively engineered entirely new ways of seeing, expanding their influence well beyond Japan and into the arts of Asia, Western Europe, and North America. Featuring the work of renowned talents as well as rising stars, this book is organized around the physical city and the role of the megalopolis as both the site and inspiration for an unprecedented explosion in the visual arts.

This volume, with more than 400 reproductions, will be the most comprehensive publication to date on Lucian Freud, covering a span of seventy years and including many works not previously reproduced. The result is a corpus of great works that reveal him to be the premier heir today of Rembrandt, Courbet, and Cézanne. The book includes not only Freud’s paintings but also his sketches, woodcuts, and powerful etchings. While the bulk of his paintings are female nudes, his cityscapes, plant studies, and interiors, executed in his distinctive muted palette and visible brushwork, are all included. Freud, who has lived in London ever since his family left Berlin in 1933 when he was ten, has achieved preeminence through his ruthless perception of the human form. His importance has long been recognized in England, but his present super-celebrity status dates from a retrospective at the Hirshhorn in Washington, D.C., in 1987. William Feaver, painter and for many years art critic for The Observer, provides a unique account of Freud’s preoccupations and achievement. Startling, moving, profoundly entertaining, the book lives up to Freud’s advice to students when getting them to paint self-portraits: “To try and make it the most revealing, telling, and believable object. Something really shameless, you know.”

In this visually stunning book, Ralph Lauren speaks candidly about himself and his art, including his most important, most iconic, and most beloved work handpicked from hundreds of runway shows, collections, and his signature cinematic advertising campaigns. Here is a rare peek into the mind of one of Americas most accomplished fashion designers.

In the early 20th-century, architects designing houses for the balmy climate of Southern California were influenced by the style of the villas and palaces that dominated the architecture of Italy, France, Spain, Greece, and Morocco, and a few other North African locales. The resulting style-noted for its pleasing combination of simplicity and dignity, for its often asymetrical undecorated facades-reflected romantic, European forms, and yet distinguished itself by adding American ingenuity. Prime examples of this include Villa Narcissa, widely celebrated for its unimposing grandeur, and Casa Leon, with its stunning hillside location and ocean views. Included here are residences by noted architects such as Julia Morgan, Bertram Goodhue, Addison Mizner, George Washington Smith, Wallace Neff, and others. While some of the houses are lavishly decorated villas with lush landscaping, others are more spare, creations; what all these interpretations of the California Mediterranean style have in common is an indoor-outdoor approach to living.

Miami is a world-renowned, cosmopolitan city with an architectural history to match. Its many treasures include not only Miami Beach's Art Deco buildings and Coral Gables, but also the houses and commercial buildings of the immediate postwar era, tropical vernacular architecture, mid-century modernism, and avant-garde high-rise buildings on the waterfront. What all these creations have in common is the intention to allure, delight, and engage the imagination and senses. Indeed, many of Miami's architects have conceived of the city in theatrical terms-a city as stage set. This book covers both well-known masterpieces and the overlooked ones, featuring spectacular color photography as well as archival imagery. With a text that is superbly informed, Miami is at once a definitive scholarly work and a seductive compendium of the area's fabled architecture.

«Storia di un bizzarro esperimento scientifico, che innesta su un cane randagio moscovita l'ipofisi di un uomo, il racconto denso di avventure ironiche e grottesche di un animale che scopre il mondo con la sensibilità di un essere umano. «Cuore di cane» fu scritto nel 1925, rimase inedito per decenni perché sequestrato dalla polizia segreta sovietica, venne ritrovato negli archivi del KGB dopo la morte dell'autore e finalmente pubblicato conquistò quindi l'apprezzamento dei lettori di tutto il mondo.»

Alberto Pinto is among the most celebrated interior designers at work today and is known primarily for his highly creative use of color and texture to achieve the effect of unparalleled opulence. Here, Pinto turns his attention to the most intimate and personal space in any home — the bedroom. Pinto succeeds in giving each of the fifty-one bedrooms featured in this illustrated volume his unequalled touch of grandeur while evoking it's owners personality. Under Pinto's direction, the bedroom becomes a fantasy-like oasis that can be adorned with fine damasks and brocades, gorgeously colored mosaics, luminously polished antique woods, soothing fountains, or neoclassical columns. The resulting bedrooms are contemporary, yet suffused with a sense of the classic and the timeless.

A glorious celebration of the singular sophistication of English furniture, this lavishly illustrated volume features more than 150 objects from the world-class collection of Hyde Park Antiques — one of the most prestigious purveyors of objects from England's history — showcased among charming illustrations of period interiors, exquisite drawings from cabinet-makers' albums, and contemporary interiors from the world's luminary decorators, including Mario Buatta, Albert Hadley, Bunny Williams, Charlotte Moss, and Cullman & Kravis, among many others. Five major styles from the periods between 1700 and 1830 are showcased in depth — from Queen Anne to Georgian, spanning Paladianism, English Rococo, Neoclassicsim, and Regency — along with the important designers of the age such as Thomas Chippenddale, Robert Adam, and George Hepplewhite. Recommended for both the serious collector and more casual admirer of traditional English style and design, this volume is destined to be a classic and is a must-have addition for every antiques aficionado's library.

The Rizzoli Art Classics series brings you Piero della Francesca, Titian, Caravaggio, and Velázquez, all in beautifully illustrated monographs, offering high-quality reproductions in compact, accessible volumes. These books feature a literary introduction by a renowned art historian, a thoroughly researched essay, and captions describing the artist's most famous canvases. A useful appendix section includes an extensive chronology of the artist's life and important historical events of his time; a compilation of writings by well-known historians, insight into each painter's stylistic development; a geographical table detailing the location of each painting in the book; and a concise bibliography with suggested further readings.With authoritative text by leading art historians, these lavishly illustrated editions provide fresh insight into the art and lives of some of the most fascinating artists in the history of painting.