The Age of Comfort: When Paris Discovered Casual--And the Modern Home Began
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This remarkable history of late-seventeenth- and early-eighteenth-century France introduces the age when comfort became a new ideal. Home life, formerly characterized by stiff formality, was revolutionized by the simultaneous introduction of the sofa (a radical invitation to recline or converse), the original living rooms, and the very concept of private bedrooms and bathrooms, with far-reaching effects on the way people lived and related to one another. DeJean highlights the revolutionary ideas—and the bold personalities behind them—that fomented change in the home and beyond, providing new insight into the household habits and creature comforts we often take for granted.
Introduction: The Age of Comfort 1Chapter 1 A Short History of Modern Comfort 22Chapter 2 An Architecture of Comfort 45Chapter 3 The Bathroom 67Chapter 4 The Flush Toilet 80Chapter 5 Heating 93Chapter 6 Easy Seats 102Chapter 7 Convenience Furniture 131Chapter 8 1735: Architect-Designed Seating Begins 140Chapter 9 The Original Interior Decorators and the Comfortable Room 144Chapter 10 The Bedroom 165Chapter 11 The Boudoir 178Chapter 12 Dressing for Comfort 186Chapter 13 The Fabric of Their Lives 205Chapter 14 The Comfortable Body 219Coda: L'Art de Vivre 229Acknowledgments 237Notes 241Bibliography 265Illustration Credits 275Index 281
