The little house
Subtitle: an architectural seduction
By: Jean-François de Bastide ; translation and introduction by Rodolphe el-Khoury ; preface by Anthony Vidler.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Princeton Architectual Press
Published: 1996
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 116
Subjects: Small houses -- France -- History -- 18th century -- Fiction; Interior decoration -- France -- History -- 18th century -- Fiction; Aesthetics, French -- 18th century -- Fiction
Description: Exemplary of an 18th-century literary genre that combined fictional narrative with didactic observations on art and architecture, The Little House tells the tale of a seduction in a maison de plaisance outside of Paris. The house itself - its architecture, gardens, artwork, and furnishings - is the central element of a story in which an impressionable woman mistakes good taste for good intentions, with unforseen results.

The Little House, long an underground classic among architectural historians and theorists, has never before been published in English. Anthony Vidler's insightful preface and Rodolphe el-Khoury's informative introduction, notes, and careful translation make the novella more accessible to the contemporary reader.