Fonthill recovered : a cultural history /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Dakers, Caroline, author.
Imprint:	London : UCL Press, 2018. ©2018
Description:	1 online resource (xxvi, 402 pages) : illustrations (some color), maps (some color), plans (some color)
Language:	English
Subject:	Beckford, William, -- 1760-1844 -- Homes and haunts -- England -- Wiltshire. Bickford family. Beckford, William, -- 1760-1844. Bickford family. Fonthill Abbey -- History. Fonthill Abbey. Authors, English -- Homes and haunts -- England -- Wiltshire. Authors, English -- Homes and haunts. Homes. Intellectual life. Wiltshire (England) -- Intellectual life. England -- Wiltshire. History.
Format:	E-Resource Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/11655115

Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:	9781787350458 1787350452 9781787350441 1787350444 1787350460 9781787350465 1787350479 9781787350472 9781787350434 9781787350427
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references (pages 349-396) and index. Print version record.
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.
Other form:	Print version: Dakers, Caroline. Fonthill recovered. London : UCL Press, 2018 1787350460

Table of 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.

Fonthill recovered : a cultural history /

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