Lighted Window, The

Evening Walks Remembered

Peter Davidson

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Hardback

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English

Bodleian Library
01 November 2021

History of Art & Design Styles; Memoirs; Literature: history & criticism; Travel & holiday; Travel writing

Homecoming, haunting, nostalgia, desire: these are some of the themes evoked by the beguiling motif of the lighted window in literature and art. In this innovative combination of place-writing, memoir and cultural study, Peter Davidson takes us on atmospheric walks through nocturnal cities in Britain, Europe and North America, and revisits the field paths of rural England.

Surveying a wide range of material, the book extends, chronologically, from early romantic painting to contemporary fiction, and geographically, from the Low Countries to Japan. It features familiar lighted windows in English literature (in the works of poets such as Thomas Hardy and Matthew Arnold and in the novels of Virginia Woolf, Arthur Conan Doyle and Kenneth Grahame) and examines the painted nocturnes of James Whistler, John Atkinson Grimshaw and the ruralist Samuel Palmer. It also considers Japanese prints of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; German romanticism in painting, poetry and music; Proust and the painters of the French belle epoque; Rene Magritte's 'L'Empire des Lumieres'; and North American painters such as Edward Hopper and Linden Frederick.

By interpreting the interactions of art, literature and geography around this evocative motif, Peter Davidson shows how it has inspired an extraordinary variety of moods and ideas, from the romantic period to the present day.

'Anyone who has felt the mystery, allure and sadness of lighted windows will find their perceptions heightened and new cultural vistas opened by this unusual and beautiful book. It's both vast and intimate in scope, taut with precise seeing and capacious in its leaps of association. Davidson inhabits the paintings he writes about, moving and feeling with them until there seems no border between pictures and life. Recognition and surprise mingle as we become wanderers in the nights of Europe, Asia and America. It's a journey to savour.' - Alexandra Harris

'Erudite, companionable, and hypnotically satisfying' - Financial Times

By: Peter Davidson
Imprint: Bodleian Library
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781851245147
ISBN 10: 1851245146
Pages: 224
Publication Date: 01 November 2021
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Contents 1. Introduction 2. Winter Cities 3. London Nocturne 4. Windows in the Landscape 5. Northern Townscapes; Western Suburbs 6. Summer Night Illuminations Notes Further Reading Acknowledgments Picture Credits Index

Peter Davidson is Senior Research Fellow of Campion Hall, University of Oxford. His previous books include 'The Idea of North' (2005) and 'The Last of the Light' (2015).

Reviews for Lighted Window, The: Evening Walks Remembered

Anyone who has felt the mystery, allure and sadness of lighted windows will find their perceptions heightened and new cultural vistas opened by this unusual and beautiful book. It's both vast and intimate in scope, taut with precise seeing and capacious in its leaps of association. Davidson inhabits the paintings he writes about, moving and feeling with them until there seems no border between pictures and life. Recognition and surprise mingle as we become wanderers in the nights of Europe, Asia and America. It's a journey to savour. --Alexandra Harris