Product Description

Savannah, its mercurial history and enigmatic charms are evocative of nothing less than paradox. Home to cotton barons, literary giants (such as Flannery O'Connor and Conrad Aiken), antique dealers, and preservationists, it has helped define Southern elegance, manners, and style for the last three centuries.

From the slightly faded grandeur of the Second Empire baroque Thomas Levy House, with its sumptuous collection of antique maps, prints, books, and other curiosities, to the phantasmal, Proustian décor of the grandiose and elegiac Knapp House interiors, all of the 20 houses featured in this book express a sensitivity to the city's sanguine and frayed eclecticism. Quite often a serene or verdant exterior-designed in a Georgian, Federal, or neoclassical style by John Ash, Isaiah Davenport, William Jay, or Amos Scudder-will relinquish its polite composure or symmetrical façade to an ingenious play of interior whimsy and light-hearted frippery. Opulent plantation manors, town houses renovated by artists, and summer cottages evincing a warmth, tasteful calculation, and measured spontaneity are featured in detail in both word and image. The foreword by John Berendt acts not only as an informative addendum to Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil but also as an excellent introduction to Savannah.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #328907 in Books
• Published on: 2001-07-06
• Released on: 2001-07-06
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 10.10" h x 1.00" w x 9.10" l, 2.70 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 208 pages

From Amazon.com
Following the extremely popular Charleston Style, Susan Sully has brought us another book about a southern city, Savannah Style. In this collection of photographs and stories of 20 houses, inspired by Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt (who gives a charming introduction), she builds a dark atmosphere in words. Her writing is intelligent and lyrical, and brings to the mind images that, unfortunately, the photographs cannot compete with--oddly disconnected, they seem to be the result of a botched mandate to capture the rich shadiness of her writing. Most of the exteriors are too much in shadow to see details, and a suspicious yellow-orange cast looms over many of the interiors. Weighed down by its predecessor, Berendt's novel, and its gloomy photographs, Savannah Style seems to have too much weight to bear for one book. Still, the imagery of Sully's writing make this coffee-table book a surprisingly good read. --Juliette Cezzar

From Publishers Weekly
A Savannah gentleman, asked to explain his hometown, recently said, "This is a city where men own their own white tie and tails. We don't rent them." That, writer John Berendt notes in an introduction to Susan Sully's Savannah Style: Mystery and Manners, "says it all." Berendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil made the elegant Southern city a site of national fascination. Sully (Charleston Style) guides readers through its lavish architecture and interiors. Plantations, lush gardens, shady wicker-furnished porches, townhouses and parlors are invitingly presented, and their diverse styles which include Spanish, French, Asian, Federalist, English Arts and Crafts, Greek Revival, Baroque and Gothic influences are cogently explained. Those who love Southern architecture will welcome this book, and so will Berendt readers intrigued by Savannah and its secrets. 130 color, 20 b&w photos by Steven Brooke.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About the Author
Susan Sully has written numerous magazines articles on Southern interiors and lifestyles. She is the author of Charleston Style and Fish Soup, both published by Rizzoli, as well as the recently published Late Bloomer's Guide to Success at any Age.

Steven Brooke is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome and winner of the AIA National Institute Honor Award for Photography. His books include Views of Rome and Views of Jerusalem and the Holy Land, both published by Rizzoli, as well as Seaside, Gardens of Florida, and The Majesty of Natchez.

John Berendt is the author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.