Being and becoming old Book

The introduction of apartment living in early Victorian Paris challenged and changed conceptions of the domestic in a rapidly expanding urban environment: home, family, and the relationship between the public and private. Drawing on contemporary literature, architectural criticism, and public debate in the newspapers, Marcus expertly looks at these issues, and contrasts the development of dense apartment living in Paris with Londoners' adherence to the terraced house as the ideal [compromise:] form of home for big cities.

Apartment Stories is an interesting read not only for what it has to say about the Victorians' reaction to the metropolitan boom, but also for what those reactions reveal about the English and French characters.