The Exiled Collector: William Banks And the Making of an English Country House: William Bankes and the Making of an English Country House - Rilegato

Sebba, Anne

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0719563283 ISBN 13: 9780719563287

Casa editrice: John Murray Pubs Ltd, 2004

Riassunto

On August 30th 1841 William John Bankes, former Tory MP, pioneer Egyptologist and renowned traveller, was caught in compromising circumstances with a guardsman in London's Green Park. Bankes paid a heavy price for his 'moment of madness': less than two weeks later, well aware that sodomy carried the death penalty, he had fled into exile, eventually settling in Venice. The government declared Bankes an outlaw, a vindictive and archaic procedure that entitled them to seize his house, Kingston Lacy in Dorset.
The Exiled Collector is the story of how Bankes, friend of Byron and the Duke of Wellington, eventually turned his personal tragedy to posterity's benefit. Based in Venice, he continued to collect obsessively for a house he no longer owned. He found fulfillment through designing, commissioning and creating as well as collecting for the house he loved, but was able to visit only in secret at the end of his life.
Based on extensive research from previously undiscovered archives, this is the first biography of William Bankes. It recounts his dramatic life story, examines the psychology of collecting, the pain and creativity of exile, and affords insight into the minds of a ruling elite in early Victorian Britain.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

A cracking and detailed tale (Antiques Trade Gazette)

A rich biography of a complex figure... The writing sparkles because Anne Sebba has seen the adventure in Bankes's life. (Christopher Lee, Literary Review)

A torrid tale (Tatler, Must Reads)

Anne Sebba tells this tale ... with great aplomb, producing in the process a wonderful hybrid of a book. (Independent on Sunday)

Anne Sebba tells us in The Exiled Collector a tale of Byron's friend William Bankes - esthete, member of Parliament, scion of a rich family - who became a notorious pariah in the 1830s when he was arrested not once but twice for approaching soldiers in public places. Bankes fled an England in which a convicted sodomite was still executed and spent the rest of his days in Venice and France compulsively collecting paintings and architectural details for his country house back in England. He knew he would never be permitted to live in the sumptuous interiors he was piecing together but paradoxically this elderly homosexual bachelor was assembling a home for future generations of his family. Anne Sebba has written this record of exquisite taste and brutal suffering with equal measures of verve, tact and eloquence. (Edmund White)

Anne Sebba's fascinating book ... (brings) Bankes out of the footnotes to which history consigned him, and back to life. (Financial Times)

This is the first biography of William Bankes and it shows that his story - poignant and colourful by turns - well deserves to be told. (Daily Telegraph)

Brisk, authoritative and readily engaging ... Anne Sebba is marvellously sure-footed in her grasp of this tale ... lively and illuminating (Daily Mail Critic's Choice)

Anne Sebba has written this record of exquisite taste and brutal suffering with equal measures of verve, tact and eloquence. (Edmund White)

Anne Sebba's fascinating book is more than the portrait of another rich, gay dilettante ... it is the portrait of an obsession ... Sebba illuminates this bizarre but brilliant project by bringing Bankes out of the footnotes to which history consigned him, and back to life. (Financial Times)

Descrizione del libro:

The poignant story of William Bankes, pioneering traveller and collector, who spent life in exile furnishing a house in which he could never live

Su questa edizione

• Editore: John Murray Pubs Ltd
• Data di pubblicazione: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0719563283
• ISBN 13: 9780719563287
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 320