Object of His Desire (Indigo: Sensuous Love Stories)
Average customer rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • Suprisingly Disappointing
  • another ok read
  • 4 Star Effort
  • Dangerous Desire
  • Wonderful Debut
Object of His Desire (Indigo: Sensuous Love Stories)
A.C. Arthur
Manufacturer: Genesis Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1585710946

Customer Reviews:

3 out of 5 stars Suprisingly Disappointing.......2007-06-24

Okay, I am a BIG fan of A.C. Arthur, so I thought I'd go back and read some of her earlier works. I must say that her debut novel of 'Object of His Desire' just didn't work for me. The novel starts off with a very nice flow. And I thoroughly enjoyed the chemistry between Jordan and Macy. However, after their first encounter everything just seemed to move at the speed of light. And as I continued to read I found although the characters shared a heated passion and the love scenes were very HOT, that I didn't bond with them as I wanted. The dialogue was a little 'corny' and repetitive and the characters didn't have as much depth, outside of the bedroom, as I've come to expect from Mrs. Arthur. There are quite a few intriguing twist and turns throughout the story, which I found to be quite unrealistic. Having said all that, Mrs. A.C. Arthur has come a long way and I have enjoyed many of her lastest novels and look forward to reading many more of her novels.

2 out of 5 stars another ok read.......2004-09-13

The book starts off interesting enough
I was immediately turned on by Jordan's take charge attitude
but everything just moved too quick after there meeting
and as the book wore on I began to not care for Macy too much.
The fact that she gets kidnapped in the story and is fearing
for her life and she tells the kidnapper that its 'not very hospitable of you'---
jordan of course saves her in a non descriptive way that seemed
like a cop out for the writer to lazy out of writing it.
the descriptions of italy are very cold like something taken
verbatum out of a travel magazine and dont flow with the rest of her book if you want a quick read with a foreign male character
as your i/r lead try and get your hands on a copy of delaney's
desert sheik its short but really good

4 out of 5 stars 4 Star Effort.......2004-06-18

Jordan Blake was infuriating @ times with his controlling ways and seemed a bit more Italian than black. I loved the way he spoke Italian and called Macy "Bella". The book had great sex scenes and you always got the feeling that Jordan and Macy really loved each other despite everything that was going on. Quick,great read that I'd recommend to anyone.

4 out of 5 stars Dangerous Desire.......2004-05-30

Half-black, half-Italian Jordan Blake, formerly Jordan Penelli, the "pretty boy millionaire" is used to getting everything he wants. This time he wants Macy Glenn, a demure, hardworking, well-respected attorney. But for Macy that means going against her morals, standards, and better judgment.

Macy's firm, Tydings, Banks, and McWinter want Jordan's business. His Cosmetics Company, clothing line, and chain of Italian Restaurants would bring millions of dollars to the firm. As a condition of retaining their services Jordan demands that Macy Glenn make catering to his legal affairs and guarding his personal schedule her sole responsibility. Basically, he wants Macy as his personal attorney. Macy is appalled and enraged. Her initial reaction was boiling rage, but it was obvious that the firm planned to accommodate Jordan Blake at all costs... "Macy, the bottom line is if you want your job, if you care anything about the work you've done for the past five years you'll..."

Macy makes an anemic attempt to resist Jordan's charm, care, and passion. Jordan struggles not to inundate Macy with his sweltering emotions. Nevertheless, passion explodes and these two irresistible characters connect like lead to a magnet. Reveling in their new found love, Jordan never fathomed that nuances of his past, family secrets, and premeditated betrayals could destroy his livlihood and the love of his life, Macy.

Macy dismisses the rumors that the Italian half of Jordan, his father Dioncello Penelli, has Sicilian ties to the Mafia. However, when a sudden and strange death occurs, Macy gets hurled into a turbulent world of violence and death where she soon finds out that being the Object of Jordan Blake's desire could be deadly.

OBJECT OF HIS DESIRE instantly captured my attention. Artist Arthur does a magnificent job of creating steady, seductive chemistry between Jordan Blake and Macy Glenn. Rapture laced with a layer of mystique, and topped off with a racy storyline, keeps the adrenaline flowing in this enjoyable novel. Both mystery and romance readers palate's are satiated with the amorous tension and consistent excitement that hangs in every chapter.

4 out of 5 stars Wonderful Debut.......2004-04-05

A.C. Arthur debut novel OBJECT OF HIS DESIRE is a romantic suspense novel featuring two dynamic characters-- Macy Glenn and Jordan Blake.

Macy is an attorney with a very promising career. She meets Jordan at a party and their lives are forever changed. Jordan is a rich and influential businessman who goes after what he wants. After meeting Macy, he knew he had to have her. One problem, he couldn't figure out how to get her to feel the same way.

Jordan devises a plan that will have him and Macy being in close proximity every day. Macy isn't too happy about it, since it affects her career and a physical move from one side of the country to another.

The sparks continue to fly with the unexpected death of Jordan's brother in Sicily. Although grieving, Jordan insisted that he needed Macy by his side. Macy wanted to refuse, but found she couldn't deny Jordan during his time of bereavement.

While in Sicily, they succumb to their attraction; however before they ccan profess their true feelings, Macy is kidnapped. Jordan suspects his father is the culprit and sets out to rescue the woman he loves.

Object of His Desire is full of suspense and will keep you on the edge of your seats as A.C. Arthur takes us on a journey from one country to the next. Once you think you have things figured out, a new twist is thrown in. Romance readers will enjoy this book.
Other Objects of Desire: Collectors and Collecting Queerly (Art History Special Issues)
Average customer rating: Not rated
    Other Objects of Desire: Collectors and Collecting Queerly (Art History Special Issues)

    Manufacturer: Blackwell Publishing Limited
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Paperback

    GeneralGeneral | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
    ThemesThemes | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
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    ASIN: 063123361X

    Book Description

    Based on an International Conference held at the University of Chicago, Other Objects of Desire: Collectors and Collecting Queerly radically rethinks the classic art-historical subject of collecting. It investigates the role played by the conceptual apparatus of contemporary queer theory in understanding different periods of history from the late Middle Ages to the present, and uses this interrogation to critically deconstruct the very idea of a collection and the process of collecting.Beginning with Michael Camille's study of sexual objects of Jean, Duc de Berry, the essays continue with Rebecca Zorach's important questioning of the significance of representations of 'lesbianism' in sixteenth century France. Veronica Biermann's equally groundbreaking work on Christina of Sweden characterises her as conqueror, collector and practitioner of religious and political identities. Christoph Voghterr's essay on Frederick the Great and Whitney Davis's broad-ranging approach to the emergence of the homoerotic collection, both open up the apparatus of a modern episteme of the homosexual and its problematic forms of visibility.Deborah Bright and Richard Meyer examine the more obvious and 'out' visibility of modern American art practices. Here Warhol and Mapplethorpe are characterised as artists whose work emerges from a deeply queer practice of everydayness and seizes upon objects and sexual acts to fabricate a figure of the self as both collector and collection. Adrian Rifkin concludes with a reflection on the virtual collecting of virtual men on the Internet. The volume thus represents a significant collaboration between scholars of different generations and interests within art history, reflecting upon the disruptive and revealing effects of contemporary sex and gender theory on the traditional objects and canons of the discipline. Following on from the achievements of previous feminist and queer writing, it offers a striking overview of current possibilities and a series of important models for future procedure. The fourth of the Art History special issues to be published as a book, it also marks a new collaboration between the journal, its readers and contributors.
    Objects of Desire: Conversations With Luid Bunuel
    Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    • Essential Bunuel
    • Great Look At A True Genius Of The Cinema.
    Objects of Desire: Conversations With Luid Bunuel
    Jose De LA Colina , Tomas Perez Turrent , and Raymond Durgnat
    Manufacturer: Marsilio Publishers
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Paperback

    Direction & ProductionDirection & Production | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
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    ASIN: 094141969X

    Book Description

    interviews in Mexico, 1975-77, ed & tr Paul Lenti

    Customer Reviews:

    5 out of 5 stars Essential Bunuel.......2003-07-12

    This is absolutely essential reading for fans of the enigmatic and reclusive Bunuel, whose career in motion pictures spanned 50 years. He is interviewed, and at times interrogated, by his friends, allowing the discussion to veer into his personal life and various obsessions with good humor and mutual understanding. The verbal sparring is a joy to observe.

    The book has been compiled in a chronological order and it will give you a good sample of his long life, from his friendship with the key Surrealists like Salvador Dali, to his amusing anecdotes of Hollywood. An easy and entertaining introduction to the life and art of a complex genius, and a fantastic guide to each of his film -- Criterion has reprinted some of these as supplements to their new DVD editions.

    5 out of 5 stars Great Look At A True Genius Of The Cinema........2000-09-15

    This is probably the best collection of interviews with a filmmaker ever published. It is not some retread to "My Last Sigh" but a great read full of insight, intelligence, that typical Buñuel style and of course, a study of great cinema. It's a fascinating book, where Buñuel discusses his life and works and how he came to be inspired to make some of his greatest films like "Un Chien Andalou," "Viridiana" and "That Obscure Object Of Desire." And it's also great to read as Buñuel discusses his philosophies of life and surrealism. The interviewers create a great conversation with a genius and take us into his mind. Some of the classic works of the cinema are dissected here in intricate detail and Buñuel offers some sly humor to the discussions. A surprise is that you realize that Buñuel's personal life is as interesting, fascinating and incredibile as his movies. Some people may not want to take a look at this book after reading "My Last Sigh," thinking it's basically the same stuff, well, it's not. Luis Buñuel was a very complex man in his thinking and this book gives us a good tour of the man. A must for lovers of great cinema and fans of surrealism and Buñuel. Lorca, Dalí, and the surrealists are all discussed here, even the gruesome, fatal fates of the two actors of "Un Chien Andalou." Great book.
    Sex Objects: Art And The Dialectics Of Desire
    Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    • excellent for academics and non academics
    • the many ways sexual desire has been portrayed in art in the past 100 years
    Sex Objects: Art And The Dialectics Of Desire
    Jennifer Doyle
    Manufacturer: Univ Of Minnesota Press
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Paperback

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    ASIN: 0816645264

    Book Description

    The declaration that a work of art is “about sex” is often announced to the public as a scandal after which there is nothing else to say about the work or the artist-controversy concludes a conversation when instead it should begin a new one.

    Moving beyond debates about pornography and censorship, Jennifer Doyle shows us that sex in art is as diverse as sex in everyday life: exciting, ordinary, emotional, traumatic, embarrassing, funny, even profoundly boring. Sex Objects examines the reception and frequent misunderstanding of highly sexualized images, words, and performances. In chapters on the “boring parts” of Moby-Dick, the scandals that dogged the painter Thomas Eakins, the role of women in Andy Warhol's Factory films, “bad sex” and Tracey Emin's crudely evocative line drawings, and L.A. artist Vaginal Davis's pornographic parodies of Vanessa Beecroft's performances, Sex Objects challenges simplistic readings of sexualized art and instead investigates what such works can tell us about the nature of desire.

    In Sex Objects, Doyle offers a creative and original exploration of how and where art and sex connect, arguing that to proclaim a piece of art “about sex” reveals surprisingly little about the work, the artist, or the spectator. Deftly interweaving anecdotal and personal writing with critical, feminist, and queer theory, she reimagines the relationship between sex and art in order to better understand how the two meet-and why it matters.

    Jennifer Doyle is associate professor of English at the University of California, Riverside. She is coeditor, with Jonathan Flatley and José Esteban Muñoz, of Pop Out: Queer Warhol.

    Customer Reviews:

    5 out of 5 stars excellent for academics and non academics .......2006-05-10

    I picked up this book because I met Professor Doyle socially and I am into art. I particularly enjoyed her chapter on Tracey Emin and her introduction, wherein she discusses Moby Dick in decidedly non-academic terms. Most academic prose is like soap without water, but Doyle manages to get a good lather going. Her work is deep but accessible in the best way, not because it's easy, but because it actually makes you think about thinks that matter, and mean something.

    5 out of 5 stars the many ways sexual desire has been portrayed in art in the past 100 years.......2006-05-02

    You know that any book of criticism with Thomas Eakins, the notorious pornographic film "Moby Dick," Andy Warhol, Vanessa Beecroft, and Tracey Emin in it is going to be quirky. What links all of these quirky artists in this work by an associate professor of English at the U. of California-Riverside and co-author of "Pop Out: Queer Warhol" is their approaches to handling sexuality. With Eakins, the approach in his time and place of Victorian era America was subtle and ambivalent. With Warhol, the approach was ironic and often detached. With Beecroft, forward and multiplicitous. These and the other unconventional treatments of sexuality are critiqued with reference to "the queer theory that addresses the limitations of dominant (largely binary) models for sexual identity for describing our sexual lives and for understanding representations of sexual difference and sexual desire." Doyle demonstrates a sure understanding of the latest methodology and critical possibilities of queer theory.
    Obscure Objects of Desire: Surrealism, Fetishism, and Politics
    Average customer rating: Not rated
      Obscure Objects of Desire: Surrealism, Fetishism, and Politics
      Johanna Malt
      Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
      ProductGroup: Book
      Binding: Hardcover

      SurrealismSurrealism | Schools, Periods & Styles | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
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      WalesWales | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
      GeneralGeneral | Criticism & Theory | History & Criticism | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
      GreekGreek | Classics | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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      ASIN: 0199253420

      Book Description

      In a speech given in Prague in 1935, Andre Breton asked, 'Is there, properly speaking, a left-wing art capable of defending itself?'. But despite his conviction that surrealism did indeed offer such an art, Breton always struggled to make a theoretical connection between the surrealists' commitment to the cause of revolutionary socialism and the form that surrealist art and literature took. Obscure Objects of Desire explores ways in which such a connection might be drawn, addressing the possibility of surrealist works as political in themselves and drawing on ways in which they have been considered as such by Marxists such as Benjamin and Adorno and by recent cultural critics. Encompassing Breton's and Aragon's textual accounts of the object, as well as paintings and the various kinds of objet surrealiste produced from the end of the 1920s, Malt mobilises the concept of the fetish in order to consider such works as meeting points of surrealism's psychoanalytic and revolutionary preoccupations. Reading surrealist works of art and literature as political is by no means the same thing as knowing the surrealist movement to have been a politically motivated one. The revolutionary character of the surrealist work itself, in isolation from the polemical positions taken up by Breton and others on its behalf, is not always evident; indeed, the works themselves often seem to express a rather different set of concerns. As well as offering a new perspective on familiar works such as the paintings of Salvador Dali, and relatively neglected ones like Breton's poemes-objets, this book recuperates the gap between theory and practice as a productive space in which it is possible to recontextualize surrealist practice as an engagement with political questions on its own terms.
      OBJECTS OF DESIRE: The Lives of Antiques and Those Who Pursue Them
      Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
      • Insightful
      • Great read, great writer
      • Good, but who no photo of the Willing
      • A Wonderful, Entertaining and Informative Book
      • Required Reading for ebayers & amazonian sellers!
      OBJECTS OF DESIRE: The Lives of Antiques and Those Who Pursue Them
      Thatcher Freund
      Manufacturer: Pantheon
      ProductGroup: Book
      Binding: Hardcover

      Furniture DesignFurniture Design | Design & Decorative Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
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      FurnitureFurniture | Antiques & Collectibles | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
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      ASIN: 0679421572
      Release Date: 1994-01-18

      Customer Reviews:

      4 out of 5 stars Insightful.......2007-04-29

      This book can give you a glimpse into the American antique trade. Focusing on three different pieces of furniture, he tells of the story of how it was created, where it's been and why it was up for sale. I enjoyed learning about how people browse and buy things and of the passion some have for a certain style or maker. It's an introspective book with a unique insight. The only criticism is that there were no pictures of the objects mentioned. This was frustrating as it made me curious about them.

      5 out of 5 stars Great read, great writer.......2006-11-02

      Even if you're not already interested in American antiques, if you enjoy excellent nonfiction writing, try this book. Unlike so many contemporary writers of nonfiction, Freund does not focus this book on himself but on a subject--the world of American antiques. By telling the stories of three different objects, the craftsmen who made them, and the collectors who owned them, Freund brings his readers into a quirky, fascinating world, where the desire for objects shapes people's lives. And if you have any interest in nonfiction writing, this book will give you lessons in the craft from a master writer.

      4 out of 5 stars Good, but who no photo of the Willing.......2003-11-07

      This is a very good read, which I enjoyed as a woodworker/furniture maker rather than an antique collector/dealer. What befuddles in the extreme is why there was no photo of the Willing card table, I'd have loved to see the carving, as well as the rest of it. So I have to go to the library and dig up a couple of magazine articles (from the New York Times Magazine 1/16/94, for example) just to see it.

      Pam

      5 out of 5 stars A Wonderful, Entertaining and Informative Book.......2003-06-02

      This book is delightful--I've bought 7 copies over the years for friends and family. With its readable style, brilliant characterizations of the eccentric people involved and its nonfiction "plot," it SHOULD have been the next MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL. I suppose its relative lack of success is due to factors in the industry, but it's certainly through no fault of the book's. I heartily recommend it to anyone and everyone, even persons uninterested in antiques--for, while it IS about antiques, it's mostly (as the subtitle suggests) about PEOPLE.

      5 out of 5 stars Required Reading for ebayers & amazonian sellers!.......2001-06-27

      It doesn't matter what you're selling, if you deal with any "objects of desire", this book is worth the read! Although it deals with the world of antique furniture, the principles apply equally as well to art, memorabilia, rare books, and you-name-it! The writer takes what at first appears to be a dry subject, and imbues it with the life and personality and drama that is normally lost in the translation to the printed page. Reads like a Steinbeck novel where the base motives, practiced deceptions, and blatant materialism are showcased side-by-side with the aesthetic beauty and artistic appreciation of a cultured society, to form a microcosm of the world of "objects of desire"!
      Objects of Our Desire: Exploring Our Intimate Connections with the Things Around Us
      Average customer rating: Not rated
        Objects of Our Desire: Exploring Our Intimate Connections with the Things Around Us
        Salman Akhtar
        Manufacturer: Harmony
        ProductGroup: Book
        Binding: Hardcover

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        ASIN: 1400054443
        Release Date: 2005-08-02

        Book Description

        What makes something sexy? Why are some things regarded as sacred and others profane? Why do mourners face such difficulty in parting with their beloved’s possessions? Why do we often feel distraught when we lose something, even when the object has little real value?

        We spend our lives in a meaningful dialogue with things around us. Sometimes the conversation is loud, as in a collector’s passion for coins or art. More often, the exchange is subtle and muted, even imperceptible. We are surrounded by things, and they affect our emotions and impact our thoughts. The arrival of a dozen flowers from a lover or a letter from a grandchild makes our day; an old photo album or an afghan knitted by a favorite aunt offers comfort when we are troubled.

        From exploring what makes something “beautiful” to why we place such value on antiques and artifacts from the past, Objects of Our Desire offers insights, both deep and delightful, into the ways we invest things with meaning and the powerful roles they play in our lives.


        Notice the inviting contours of that sofa, the glint of a knife’s edge, the sparkle of a diamond ring. Feel the softness of the pashmina around that woman’s milky shoulders. Look at the majesty of a large jet plane. Take in the somberness of a gravestone. Put on an old pair of shoes. Clutch a warm mug of freshly brewed coffee. Sit on a rocking chair. Feel the sumptuous leather seats of a new car.

        We are surrounded by things. We are involved with them, indebted to them. We speak to things and things speak to us. To say that we are interdependent is banal. Let us be courageous. Let us admit it: we are lovers.
        —From Objects of Our Desire
        Objects of Desire
        Average customer rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
        • A fun black and white trip back in time!
        • Horrible
        Objects of Desire
        Adrian Forty
        Manufacturer: Pantheon
        ProductGroup: Book
        Binding: Paperback

        GeneralGeneral | Design & Decorative Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
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        1. The Industrial Design Reader The Industrial Design Reader

        ASIN: 0394751515
        Release Date: 1987-03-12

        Customer Reviews:

        4 out of 5 stars A fun black and white trip back in time!.......2006-09-04

        This is like a trip to a museum from your easy chair - full of nostalgia. You'll learn a lot about how older inventions came about, how they worked, etc. Includes the first typewriters, radios, phonographs, bellows vacuum cleaner, and lots more.

        1 out of 5 stars Horrible.......2001-09-11

        The author is very intelligent and elaborate but the book is only to be used when punishing murderers...
        Objects Of Desire - A Portrait of Love and Marriage
        Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
        • And They Lived Happily Ever After
        • Ralph Graves Writes of Desire
        • An Ode to Love
        Objects Of Desire - A Portrait of Love and Marriage
        Ralph Graves
        Manufacturer: Andrews McMeel Publishing
        ProductGroup: Book
        Binding: Hardcover

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        ASIN: 0740740083

        Book Description

        This is a love store, told in a completely different way. Eleanor MacKenzie, just graduated from Barnard, and Ralph Graves, just graduated from Harvard, met as brand-new researchers at Life magazine in September 1948. They soon married other people, but the two couples then became closest friends. After seven years of that closeness, Eleanor and Ralph realized that they were profoundly in love. Both went through bitter and punitive divorces to get to each other. It was worth it. The have now been married for 45 years. This book is the story of their love and marriage, told through the myriad objects that have played a significant role in that story. Gifts, homes, cars, paintings, books, furniture, jewelry, clothes-all are invested with the deeply emotional value that grew out of what those objects of desire meant to those people. But the story does not apply only to these two particular people. As Ralph Graves says about these objects that carry that resonance. The objects are different for each of us, but the resonance is the same. The book is an intimate picture of resonance in love and marriage.

        Customer Reviews:

        5 out of 5 stars And They Lived Happily Ever After.......2003-09-01

        by Daniel Cabot, Martha's Vineyard Times.
        OBJECTS OF DESIRE is a book of essays--two dozen witty essays, a kind of polymorphic valentine from Ralph Graves to his wife of 45 years, Eleanor. The "objects" really are objects: cars, a cassoulet, sculptures, a bracelet, paintings, a wine rack, various dogs, a silver belt buckle. Each is in some way evocative of the flavor and spirit of what seems to us to have been an extraordinarily wonderful marriage. The objects are the objective correlative of the emotional, intellectual and spiritual aspects of their life together.
        Ralph Graves is a witty and entertaining raconteur, but more than that, as poets like Robert Frost are able to do, he takes ordinary objects and finds in them something more--about life together and about the human condition. The objects do more than call up the family story; they are touchstones to reflection and understanding.
        Ralph and Eleanor are interesting people--bright, creative, talented, adventurous--who have lived interesting and intellectual lives. Their jobs at "Life" magazine and the style with which they live in New York City, on Martha's Vineyard, and in travels around the world, are interesting in themselves. But we found our interest in the insights of the thinker and the craftsmanship of the skilled essayist.

        5 out of 5 stars Ralph Graves Writes of Desire.......2003-07-20

        OBJECTS OF DESIRE uses what seems at first an implausible premise--that an object can tell the story of love. But as Mr. Graves writes about his or his wife's desire for an object, the circumstances surrounding its acquisition, and their enjoyment of it, we are drawn in to an understanding of the dynamics of the couple's long and tightly woven marriage.
        The book is organized in a series of stand-alone chapters. Each chapter describes an object Mr. and Mrs. Graves treasure--a belt buckle, a painting, a swimming pool, a house, a table, a leather-bound book, a necklace.
        Chapter 16, The Nine-Foot Table,exemplifies the give and take, the working together and the determination each brought to the marriage. Off and on for years--36 years, in fact--the couple searched for a nine-foot table to accommodate their large family. The search finally ended when Mrs. Graves found just what they wanted under a heap of display items. The story of the hunt for the table, its purchase, the farcical transporta-tion of the table from delivery van to upstairs apartment in an inches-too-small freight elevator, closes with a comment from the building superintendent, "If you ever sell this apartment," he slaps the table, "this stays here."
        Mrs. Graves describes her husband's book as "a valentine, a love letter." Mr. Graves says it is something more, "a portrait, through objects, of love and marriage and of the woman who is at the heart of both."
        Mr. Graves has published three works of nonfiction and six novels.

        5 out of 5 stars An Ode to Love.......2003-07-02

        By Cynthia Riggs, Vineayrd Gazette. At a time when more than half of all marriages end in divorce, it's heartening and more than a little reassuring to read this author's love letter to his wife of 45 years. Graves has written ten books, ranging from a novel about the Roman Empire to a murder mystery set on his beloved Martha's Vineyard. This is his most deeply felt and charmingly written book, as well as a portrait of the woman who has shared his life for so long. He tells much of their story through objects that have been important to them. Many of these are gifts. As he puts it, "Every present that is given in the course of a marriage makes a cumulative contribution to the marriage itself. Every gift must be personal."
        He begings with a sterling silver belt buckle his wife gave him three years before they were married, and that he still wears. She still wears a bracelet that he bought her in Rome right after their marriage. He talks about the problems of finding the nine-foot-table they needed for their growing family, a Mustang convertible they had for 22 years and a number of dogs that have brightened their lives and broken their hearts.
        This is, as he says,"A portrait of a love story and a marriage" and one that tells a great deal about what it takes to make a marriage work.
        Objects of Desire: Design and Society Since 1750
        Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
        • Great textbook for Design History
        • If I was glued to this book while being in a college Superbowl Party, it must have been pretty good
        • More a technical treatise than an easy read.
        • Who "designed" modern culture?
        Objects of Desire: Design and Society Since 1750
        Adrian Forty
        Manufacturer: Thames & Hudson
        ProductGroup: Book
        Binding: Paperback

        GeneralGeneral | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
        Industrial DesignIndustrial Design | Industrial, Manufacturing & Operational Systems | Engineering | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
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        Decorative ArtsDecorative Arts | Design & Decorative Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
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        ASIN: 0500274126

        Customer Reviews:

        5 out of 5 stars Great textbook for Design History.......2007-01-19

        I rediscovered this book after college since I was probably too young to truly appreciate it the first time around. I use it now as the textbook for my Culture of Design seminar because it is one of the rare design history books that can ground design in its social context with real depth or clarity. (And boy, have I looked!)

        While it can seem long winded to some, the ideas contained within are so novel and well explained that it can make someone allergic to 18th and 19th Century Design (like myself) truly appreciate the radical innovations of that period. For example, the Industrial Revolution was not just due to the steam engine's invention but more specifically to division of labor such as implemented in Wedgewood's factory in the mid 18th century.

        The chapter on "Differentiation by Design" is a gem, showing how design reinforces class, age and gender roles. In the chapter on labor saving devices, women didn't really save any labor since cleanliness standards simply rose to meet product opportunities...

        It's true that the book's layout, infographics and quality of the images do not do it justice... Hopefully the next reprint will address that.

        4 out of 5 stars If I was glued to this book while being in a college Superbowl Party, it must have been pretty good.......2006-02-23

        What is design? Is it what we make it to be, how we want it to be, or is it just designed and accepted by society? Adrian Forty writes the book in an unusual way by setting up each chapter as its own entity, yet the concepts in all the chapters somehow relate. The author enjoys jumping from topic to topic at high speed which makes the read interesting with the overwhelming examples there are in products- in one chapter it went from pocketknives to watches to childhood furniture to textiles to soap to architecture within a span of a couple pages. Ridiculous as it may be, it somehow kept my attention. Filled with pictures of antique and modern design, Forty proves that design has progressed though time according to the needs or perceived needs of society. It makes you see things more as designs than products, and inspires you to wonder why something was designed the way it was. This book was assigned to be read in one of my college classes, and I decided to keep it instead of selling it back after the semester ended.

        4 out of 5 stars More a technical treatise than an easy read........2005-11-13

        This is more for the reader who wants to read an economic and cultural treatise on the development of design and how it has affected culture.

        If it wasn't so long-winded I would have actually enjoyed it a lot more. Forty has looked at some of the assumptions we have made about design and culture and realised that they are not quite as they seem. A classic example he uses is that the invention and high use of sewing machines coincided with the impossibly ruffled gowns and dresses of the 1860's - the assumption has always been that the sewing machine made this type of style possible. Forty points out that these dresses did indeed use up to 100yds of fabric, and the use of the sewing machine only made them possible by making them more affordable. Sweatshops paid machine sewers far less than they paid hand sewers - therefore more complex dresses made by machine could be made for cheaper cost. My only problem with Forty is that he takes nearly 2 pages to say this.

        I have some other problems with this work, I don't think it is well illustrated - all illustrations are small and in black and white - a bit hard to take in things that he calls 'richly glazed' and so on when you can't even see the colours. It also means he has catalogues and so on in here printed in impossibly small form so you can barely make out the designs.

        On another petty note, I was surprised to see the picture of a cauliflower tea pot - fully functional from Wedgewood on one page, and then several pages later a picture of the mould was shown - both from 1760. What suprised me was that there was no reference in the text or near either illustration alluding to the fact that these were both in here. I thought something like this would at least have a small footnote directing to the other page.

        I realise that with printing you have to make compromises but I didn't feel that these essentially editing and printing details did the book and its subject full justice. This really is a great book - divided into 11 chapters from the first industrial designers, to design in the home, labour-saving in the home and design and corporate identity. It just doesn't really quite make it.

        5 out of 5 stars Who "designed" modern culture?.......1997-05-08

        Design, according to Adrian Forty, encompasses not just how things look, but how they are made and marketed as well. In a very readable and well-illustrated book, Forty shows how design reflects and changes culture. His fascinating historical accounts show how modern consumer society developed. Victorian pocket knives, for instance, mirrored and reinforced that era's strict social structure. In another example, Forty reaches back to the 1750s to show how Wedgewood china introduced revolutionary changes in industrial manufacturing, design, and marketing that made the industrial revolution possible. Objects of Desire should appear on the reading lists of every design department and business school

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