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God's Architect: Pugin and the Building of Romantic Britain by Hill, Rosemary [07 August 2008] Paperback – August 7, 2008

by Rosemary Hill (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 69 ratings
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Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812–1852) was one of Britain’s greatest architects, and his short career one of the most dramatic in architectural history. Born in 1812, the son of a French draftsman, at 15 Pugin was working for King George IV at Windsor Castle. By the time he was 21 he had been shipwrecked, bankrupted, and widowed. Nineteen years later he died, insane and disillusioned, having changed the face and the mind of British architecture in works as revered as the House of Lords and the clock tower at Westminster, known as Big Ben. God’s Architect is the first modern biography of this extraordinary figure. Rosemary Hill draws upon thousands of unpublished letters and drawings to re-create Pugin’s life and work as architect, propagandist, and Gothic designer, as well as the turbulent story of his three marriages, the bitterness of his last years, and his sudden death at 40. It is the work of an exceptional historian and biographer. (20090924)
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  1. Language
    English
  2. Publisher
    Penguin Books Ltd
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00C7GCFYE
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books Ltd (August 7, 2008)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 0.01 ounces
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 69 ratings

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Rosemary Hill

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4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
69 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

DavidB
5.0 out of 5 stars Gave as good an insight into Pugin's character as we are likely ...
Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2014
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A long, but superbly well written and researched book. Gave as good an insight into Pugin's character as we are likely to get, given the paucity of information about some aspects of his life. But Hill's surefooted knowledge of the architecture and wider cultural and religious forces at work in early 19th century Britain is second to none.
9 people found this helpful
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Benjamin
5.0 out of 5 stars Hard to top
Reviewed in the United States on April 10, 2017
This is a deep and captivating biography. The depth of Rosemary Hill's research is breathtaking (I shudder to think at the number of hours she must have spent scouring through personal correspondence and business accounts), but her writing is vivid, clear, and engaging.

I especially appreciated three aspects of her work.

First is her treatment of the surrounding cultural, political, and religious issues that surrounded Pugin's career and the Gothic revival. Getting a better grasp of the Picturesque, the Oxford Movement, and the spirit of the Young Victorians is so helpful.

Second is her sympathetic but judicious approach. She is able to understand and describe thought patterns and practices that would seem odd to most today without criticizing or condescending. At the same time, she is able to offer many judgments of history (about his unfair treatment, his own inconsistencies, etc.) that are both refreshing and satisfying.

Finally, she has an understanding not just of the history, but of the architecture. As an architect myself, I found her judgments well-informed, helpful, and astute. She's able to grasp the significance and points of interest in his various works and guide the reader through his development (including his many frustrations). I found myself reading many portions with my phone nearby to look up additional pictures of the projects mentioned, but even without that extra effort, Hill does a fine job conveying the architecture in words.

As an architect, an anglophile, an evangelical, and a lover of Gothic, I will find it very difficult to top this book.
7 people found this helpful
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nutzabtbooks
5.0 out of 5 stars This book made A. W. N. Pugin ...
Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2015
This book made A.W.N. Pugin come alive for me. I have always wondered how he was able to influence so many people in matters of architectural taste. I had not known of his own personal religious path before reading this well written book. It is scholarly, well documented, and a pleasure to read.
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Roberto
4.0 out of 5 stars A Pointless Biography of Pugin
Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2010
God's Architect: Rosemary Hill's Pointless Biography of Augustus Pugin, V.P.

God's Architect (Yale UP, 2009) is a monumental work of scholarship, but because it lacks a unifying thesis or central point, Rosemary Hill's sprawling 600-page, fifteen-years-in-the-making biography of the nineteenth century English architect Augustus Pugin (1812-1852) is, in the final analysis, unfortunately, a failure. The closest thing to a central thesis that she offers, the closest thing to an explanation of Pugin's extraordinary life and career, is her speculation that he contracted syphilis, possibly before he was out of his teens, and that it was that disease that underlay many of his physical and mental problems and that led finally to his insanity and death, at the age of forty.

Hill had the sense not to marry her biography to syphilis; at best, or at worst, God's Architecture only flirts with it. She does not mention syphilis until page 151, and not again until page 257, but she returns to the subject near the end, on page 492 and again on page 598, in the Epilogue, when she has no other explanation for Pugin's extraordinary life and work to fall back on.

If there is no point to Hill's biography, there was, quite literally, to Pugin's life and career. He was a practitioner and champion of what he preferred to call Pointed architecture. One of his most important books was The True Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture (1841). He said he converted to Catholicism as a result of his study of Pointed architecture. Hill's failure to take into account and adequately explain Pugin's lifelong commitment to and obsession with Pointed architecture is the Achilles' heel of God's Architect.

In making light of the titles and honors he never was awarded, in spite of his important contributions in architecture and the applied arts, Pugin once quipped that the only letters he was ever likely to have after his name were V.P., which he made clear stood for "very pointed." But Hill did not explain his "very pointed" quip, either in her biography or when she was asked directly about it in an interview with The Guardian.

Hill is good at showing Pugin's contributions to architecture and the applied arts, and conversely in showing how egotistical and obtuse he could be, but not why he was so crazy about Pointed architecture. Pugin believed Pointed architecture had been the means to his salvation by pointing , literally and figuratively, toward heaven and Catholicism. Syphilis may or may not have killed Pugin, but Pointed architecture is what he lived for.
13 people found this helpful
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Mrs. I. S. Young
3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting book
Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2012
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I was wanting to read about Pugin and this was the only book I could find.It was a good book on the subject 'though I thought it was a bit long winded.It is a well researched book and goes right back to the circumstances of Pugins birth and how he came to be in England.I was also interested to find out his role in designing buildings in Ireland and this answered many of my questions.I would recommend this book.
7 people found this helpful
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Conertina
1.0 out of 5 stars ... a tremendous feat of historical writing - a very good read.
Reviewed in the United States on June 4, 2015
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Well researched - a tremendous feat of historical writing - a very good read.
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J. Nichols
5.0 out of 5 stars A.W. Pugin : A Man of Contrasts; A Man of Genius
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 4, 2012
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This monumental work of Rosmary Hill must be the definitive biography of that romantic Christian visionary, Pugin. What is so remarkable about her book is the way she draws in some detail the historical context of her subject, giving him a truly three dimensional quality.

I am not sure that it was possible to divide his private life from his public interest as architect, designer and polemicist. The fact that as a Catholic convert he so strongly believed that medaeval Gothic represented the highroad to a true Catholic architecture, ascribing as Pagan anything diriving from Vitruvius, effectively meant that his personal convictions drove his architectural standpoint. At all events this author does not attempt to separate into different chapters his leisure interests and love life from his professional practice and so, every so often, we have to be prepared to be jerked on the same page from somewhat highbrow matters into sentimental affairs of the heart !

There is so much ground covered in this densely written, well researched work. Who would imagine, for instance, that while designing interior details for the Palace of Westminster for Sir Charles Barry, our hero is concerned with salvaging 18 tons of Russian tallow with a purpose-bought longboat called Caroline ? Although now best known for this collaboration with Barry when he got little money and even less credit at the time, Pugin had several aristocratic patrons, the most important being the Catholic Lord Shrewsbury. Pugin had a favorite builder in George Myers, and was loyal to a number of suppliers : John Hardman for metalwork and latterly stained glass; Herbert Minton for ceramics, especially encaustic tiles; J Gregory Crace for textiles and wallpapers.

A great many pages are devoted to ecclesiastical matters that were of profound ground-shattering significance at the time but which now in this relatively agnostic age seem of little relevance ! Pugin as a Catholic convert was always friendly towards the movers and shakers of the Anglican High Church Movements hoping that ultimately a reconcialition with Rome would be found. So we hear much about the Tractarians, and Puseyites that animated the Oxford movement, and the Camden Society, originally formed to study Church architecture, which originated in Cambridge.

Pugin expounded his appreciation of pointed medaeval architecture in "Contrasts" where he compared it favorably to the increasingly debased Pagan works that had come back into favour since the Renaissance. Later came "True Principles" which opened up the possibilities for architects to tamper with Gothic. Gothic could now evolve provided the external and internal appearance of an edifice was illustrative and in accordance with the purpose for which it was designed. I make these points here because these treatises proved to be very influential and helped bring about the Gothic revival of the High Victorian Era with architects like Street, Scott and William Butterfield carrying the flame of pointed architecture onto every High Street in the country.

Pugin died at forty, insane, having married three times and professionally having achieved so much. He could be witty : "Being an architect to one grate or fireplace is worse than keeping a fishstall !" However he often drove others as hard as himself, was sometimes undiplomatic and certainly made some enemies.

All in all Rosemary Hill has written an astonishing biography. It makes for an excellent read in its own right, but it is particularly recommended as background reading for architectural students, students of social history, and indeed seminarians preparing for ordinatiion ! There is a comprehensive compilation of Pugin's executed works at the end of the book.
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SJR
5.0 out of 5 stars A scholarly biography which is also an absorbing tale
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 31, 2012
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When I ordered this book I am ashamed to admit that I had only the sketchiest knowledge of Pugin - I had vague ideas about his involvement in the design of the Houses of Parliament and Victorian churches, and his association with the Oxford Movement, and imagined him in my ignorance to be some sort of consumptive intellectual. Of course, I know now that I was hopelessly wrong in my woolly assumptions! But I wanted to fill in this gap in my knowledge, and this book not only told me everything that I could want to know about Pugin and his life and career, but what is even better, made an entertaining and absorbing story of it. I really could not put the book down - I read far too late into the night several times, which is not what you would necessarily expect of a biography of an eminent Victorian, especially one who was an architect and designer. I learned that not only was Pugin a most fascinating individual, a complete maverick, and unconventional in so many ways - a real character - but also quite amazingly talented, often misunderstood, and a man who in a lot of ways led quite a sad, although pretty eventful, life. Rosemary Hill skilfully tells the tale of his personal life and relationships as well that of his professional one - they are really quite inextricable - and also puts his work in the context of what was happening in the world of design and architecture around him. His is the story of a genius manqué which really should be better known as he had such a huge and continuing influence, often unacknowledged, on his contemporaries and those who came after him.

I can highly recommend this book, and not just to those who are knowledgeable and interested in architecture and design. I certainly didn't think I was interested in the former before I read this book, but reading Pugin's story has quite changed my mind.
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Edward B. Crutchley
5.0 out of 5 stars Churches have never turned my head - they will now
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 31, 2012
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An extraordinarily enlightening and precious biography because it not only lets you in to Pugin's mind, life and works, but it also paints such a complete and fascinating picture of early nineteenth century life during his time. We learn of the trials and tribulations that a talented Pugin went through to get any form of recognition, how hard he had worked all his short life to the cost of his family and himself, and especially how he had to contend with the ups and (more often) downs. We learn of the Catholic struggle to finally become re-accepted in English society and efforts to take advantage over the Protestants when they could; it could all have ended so differently. This was a privilege to read. If I ever have to clear my bookshelves, this one will stay.
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whitecords
4.0 out of 5 stars Good companion to Pugin's Contrasts
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 18, 2013
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Was recommended to read this as part of my research into Pugin's writings on contrasts. Well written and informative if you like to know about the person behind the work. Hill is very easy to read and contains a wealth of further resources for further reading on the subject.
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Dave
5.0 out of 5 stars A master-work of a biography
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 21, 2012
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This is rare book indeed. Most biographers paint a single picture of their subject as either saint or monster (depending on what sells books)and miss the complex multi-faceted and ever changing nature of humanity. This is especially true when dealing with a genius like Pugin. Hill manages rise above her subject-matter and be objective without losing the narrative or becoming boring. We are drawn into the story of a talented individual with a unique vision, but Hill never loses sight of his failings and the impact on those around him. She is never judgmental and leaves the reader to form their own conclusions.

On the troubled matter of the Houses of Parliament, she is superb. Whilst the whole truth will never be known, it's absolutely clear that Barry saw Pugin as a highly valued (although poorly rewarded) sub-contractor. As Hill makes clear, there was probably no one else on the planet who could have produced the designs as quickly and as perfectly as he, but his erratic health and behaviour as well as his ability to make enemies mean that his could only ever be a supporting role. It's a complex picture but the building we see now is truly Barry and Pugin's work not one or the other.

Hill has done a superb job in collating her facts and is not frightened to say what we simply cannot know due to the passage of time and lack of information. Overall this is a great read and will leave you wanting to see more of his work.
3 people found this helpful
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