Baroque between the Wars
Alternative Style in the Arts, 1918-1939
Jane Stevenson
Reviews and Awards
"... endlessly fascinating." --D.J.Taylor, The Times Literary Supplement
"Baroque Between the Wars is a witty and elegant account of an alternative style in the arts ... this wide-ranging and hugely entertaining book perfectly combines aesthetic and social history." --Peter Parker, The Times Literary Supplement
"Baroque Between the Wars ... is a witty and elegant account of an alternative style in the arts to the mainstream Modernist one of 'simplification and streamlining'" --Peter Parker, Times Literary Supplement
"a beautifully written account of modern baroque in its many guises ... it is scholarly, diverting and fascinating, all at once: a bracing draught that genuinely fills a huge void, an essential read to understand a period in all its diversity." -- James Stevens, Times Higher Education
"Learned and thought-provoking ... Stevenson has encyclopaedic knowledge of the period and the style, in all its many forms. The book covers a glorious array of cultural activities ... Stevenson writes with gentle humour and a keen sense of the absurd." -- Adrian Tinniswood, Literary Review
"Baroque Between the Wars draws its strength from Stevenson's omnivorous sourcing of material and her intellectual curiosity." -- Tanya Harrod, Apollo
"exceptional." -- Clive Aslet, Country Life
"A fascinating, thought-provoking account of the arts in the 1920s and 1930s." -- The Tablet
"One of this book's greatest strengths is the author's original research across several disciplines ... [Stevenson] writes in clear, insightful prose ... This is essential reading that will, inter alia, explain you to yourself." -- Ruth Guilding, The World of Interiors
"The book is welcome for its extensive examination of one of the most interesting moments in art and life of recent times." -- David Platzer, The British Art Journal
"extraordinary ... Stevenson writes with admirable clarity and wit." -- Altair Brandon-Salmon, Cherwell
"Broad in scope, yet full of telling detail, this important study of the Baroque sensibility brilliantly illuminates a too-long-neglected era of artistic and cultural activity." -- Stephen Calloway, author of Baroque Baroque: The Culture of Excess
"Stevenson's achievement is baroque in its richness and variety. Spanning the art forms, and bringing to new prominence the period's decorative taste-makers from Cecil Beaton to Elsa Schiaparelli, she turns a serious eye on the meanings of masquerade. The emphasis on art markets and circles of patronage contributes a wealth of new material to this thick-woven tapestry of ideas." -- Alexandra Harris, Department of English Literature, University of Birmingham
"With the scholarship, humanity, and wit that made her Edward Burra biography so outstanding, Jane Stevenson presents a shimmering bouquet of connected essays, animating the ghosts of early twentieth-century fashion and frolic, that propose a serious alternative to modernism." -- Alan Powers