The Decoration of Houses: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Decoration of Houses, credited to Edith Wharton and Ogden Codman, Jr., is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of The Decoration of Houses by Edith Wharton and Ogden Codman, Jr. The Decoration of Houses, a manual of interior design written by Edith Wharton with architect Ogden Codman, was first published in 1897. In the book, the authors denounced Victorian-style interior decoration and interior design, especially those rooms that were decorated with heavy window curtains, Victorian bric-a-brac and overstuffed furniture. They argued that such rooms emphasized upholstery at the expense of proper space planning and architectural design and were, therefore, uncomfortable and rarely used. Wharton and Codman advocated the creation of houses with rooms decorated with strong architectural wall and ceiling treatments, accentuated by well-suited furniture, rooms based on simple, classical design principles such as symmetry and proportion and a sense of architectural balance. The Decoration of Houses is considered a seminal work and its success led to the emergence of professional decorators working in the manner advocated by its authors. (Summary by Wikipedia)

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Decoration of Houses
• Author credits: Edith Wharton and Ogden Codman, Jr.
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 18
• Listed recording duration: 6:22:10

Catalogue topics

• audio
• architecture
• interior design
• wharton

Track guide

1. 00 - Introduction — 7:47
2. 01 - The Historical Tradition — 27:42
3. 02 - Rooms in General — 24:21
4. 03 - Walls — 45:39
5. 04 - Doors — 36:57
6. 05 - Windows — 15:52
7. 06 - Fireplaces — 25:35
8. 07 - Ceilings and Floors — 24:09
9. 08 - Entrance and Vestibule — 6:47
10. 09 - Hall and Stairs — 26:58
11. 10 - The Drawing-Room, Boudoir, and Morning-Room — 19:13
12. 11 - Gala Rooms: Ball-Room, Saloon, Music-Room, and Gallery — 19:03
13. 12 - The Library, Smoking Room, and Den — 15:48
14. 13 - The Dining-Room — 12:46
15. 14 - Bedrooms — 20:04
16. 15 - The School-Room and Nurseries — 27:24
17. 16 - Bric-a-Brac — 20:34
18. 17 - Conclusion — 5:35

Listen to this recording

Open the complete recording and player on Internet Archive. The player includes the full track list and available download formats.

Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.