Sir John Vanbrugh: A Biography by Kerry Downes

Book Description

Secondhand. Very good condition. Minor wear to book corners and edges. Light foxing to top and right foredge. Small mark on tail foredge. Dust jacket has wear at the corners and spine tail. Interior and binding are still very good.

A comprehensive study of one of the most versatile figures of the English Baroque period.

Serious, witty, shrewd and charming, Vanbrugh lived through five reigns from Charles II to George I. He was a soldier, playwright, architect, theatre manager, herald and public servant. He came from a large and widely connected family that had become as English as the name was foreign.

Author Kerry Downes, a renowned architectural historian, traces Vanbrugh's unconventional path from a Restoration playwright to the architect of monumental English country houses.

This is the first biography of him to deal in detail with both his architecture and his plays, as well as the private life of this appealing personality who enlivened both the Restoration and the Early Georgian ages.