At Home: A Short History of Private Life
by Bryson, Bill
- Used
- Fine
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Fine/Fine
- ISBN 10
- 0767919386
- ISBN 13
- 9780767919388
- Seller
-
Santa Barbara, California, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York: Doubleday, 2010. 497 pages, illustrations; 25 cm. Tight, clean copy. Stated First United States Edition. Dust jacket protected in a mylar book cover. A fine copy of the first printing. "From one of the most beloved authors of our time, a fascinating excursion into the history behind the place we call home. Bill Bryson and his family live in a Victorian parsonage in a part of England where nothing of any great significance has happened since the Romans decamped. Yet one day, he began to consider how very little he knew about the ordinary things of life as found in that comfortable home. To remedy this, he formed the idea of journeying about his house from room to room to "write a history of the world without leaving home." The bathroom provides the occasion for the history of hygiene, the bedroom for an account of sex, death, and sleep, the kitchen for a discussion of nutrition and the spice trade, and so on, showing how each has figured in the evolution of private life. From architecture to electricity, from food preservation to epidemics, from the telephone to the Eiffel Tower, from crinolines to toilets -- and the brilliant, creative, and often eccentric talents behind them -- Bryson demonstrates that whatever happens in the world ends up in our houses, in the paint and the pipes and the pillows and every item of furniture." - Publisher.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. 8vo. Collectible.
Synopsis
BILL BRYSON ’s books include A Walk in the Woods , I’m a Stranger Here Myself , In a Sunburned Country , Bryson’s Book of Troublesome Words , A Short History of Nearly Everything (which earned him the 2004 Aventis Prize), The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid , and Bryson’s Dictionary for Writers and Editors . Bryson lives in England with his wife and children.
Reviews
On Nov 20 2014, CloggieDownunder said:
“…centuries and centuries of people quietly going about their daily business - eating, sleeping, having sex, endeavouring to be amused – ant it occurred to me….that that’s really what history is: masses of people doing ordinary things”
At Home: a short history of private life is the fifteenth book by American author, Bill Bryson. With his uniquely individual style, Bryson takes the reader around his house, an 1851 Norfolk rectory, and he explores the history of activities that are (sometimes very loosely) associated with each room’s designation. Thus he touches on a vast array of topics and presents all sorts of noteworthy, sometimes surprising and occasionally hilarious facts.
At over six hundred pages of content, this is quite a brick, but is, as with many Bryson books, easy to read and thoroughly fascinating. Bryson has a talent for making the most ordinary, everyday subject interesting, and in this book he also explains the origin of many terms in common usage that we seldom think about, along with their meanings. Another excellent Bryson offering.
(Log in or Create an Account first!)
Details
- Bookseller
- LEFT COAST BOOKS (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 105490
- Title
- At Home: A Short History of Private Life
- Author
- Bryson, Bill
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Fine
- Jacket Condition
- Fine
- ISBN 10
- 0767919386
- ISBN 13
- 9780767919388
- Publisher
- Doubleday
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 2010
- Size
- 8vo
- Keywords
- COLLECTIBLE
- Bookseller catalogs
- XXX / COLLECTIBLES; Architecture / Domestic; European / British & Irish; Architecture / Religious Buildings;
Terms of Sale
LEFT COAST BOOKS
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
LEFT COAST BOOKS
Biblio member since 2016
Santa Barbara, California
About LEFT COAST BOOKS
Established in Santa Barbara, California, in 2004, Left Coast Books specializes in ART BOOKS, offering thousands of titles on painting, sculpture, graphic arts, architecture, design, photography, film, video, and performance art. We also sell classics, literature, history, and a broad variety of useful academic books.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Tight
- Used to mean that the binding of a book has not been overly loosened by frequent use.
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...