The Collected Letters Of A. W. N. Pugin: Volume 1, 1830-42

Margaret Belcher (ed)

Editions

Review

It would be almost impossible to overestimate the significance of Pugin.  His position as one of the most eminent of early-Victorian grandees is assured by his work as an architect and leader of the Gothic revival, while his skills as a designer of furniture, textiles, stained glass and ceramics mark him as the originator of the ideals which would inspire the Arts and Crafts Movement.

Margaret Belcher has embarked on the ambitious task of an edition in 5 volumes of his letters.  The first of these begins in 1830 when Pugin was little more than a boy, precociously talented certainly but still unsure of himself and insecure in many social situations.  By 1842, when this volume ends, he is well established and has made himself celebrated by publishing his important early work “The True Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture” in which he initiated the Medievalist strain in Victorian literature and architecture.

Quite why I should be surprised that this outstanding scholar and polemicist should be such a fine letter-writer I can’t think, but I was amazed and delighted by the personality which emerges, high-minded to be sure, but never pompous and even when discussing his conversion to Catholicism he can manage to smile at himself.

Let us hope that when Dr.Belcher’s task is complete, we can expect a sensibly-priced edition to introduce Pugin to a wider audience. - review by Stewart Grimshaw