Behind a Georgian Door: Perfect Rooms, Imperfect Lives

CHRISTMAS 2013 - Herbert Place: A lovingly restored townhouse - on the street where Elizabeth Bowen lived - becomes a testing burden for a young family after the financial crash. GEORGE WASHINGTON'S BED - Upper Pembroke Street: A moment of crisis - and an eighteenth-century bed - bring together an unlikely group in one of Dublin's most familiar Georgian streets. GRACE KELLY'S DRESS - Merrion Square: A famous dress, a spectacular dinner party, and a dining room of family legend and of family tragedy - on the grand Georgian square which Oscar Wilde, W.B. Yeats, Sheridan LeFanu, and Daniel O'Connell once called home.

Table of Contents:
I. Christmas 2013 (- Herbert Place), II. George Washington's Bed (- Upper Pembroke Street), III. Grace Kelly's Dress (- Merrion Square).

About the Author :
When Irish author Artemesia D'Ecca went hunting for a Dublin Georgian house she could afford - one in poor condition, and little changed by time - she became familiar with many of the city's famous terraces. By the 21st century, few of those tall houses looked as if they had ever been loved. Some seemed close to collapse. They were built as family houses, but history intervened, and many had spent most of their existence as apartments or some sort of rooming house - until modern laws emptied them entirely of residents. In the 1980s and 1990s, the lifetime tenants, with rights and comfortable apartments, were forced out. The packed houses where everyone shared a bathroom - havens for the young and the poor - were cleared out later. The Georgian houses she inspected were often good value and had space for a big family, but in general, only artists and moguls have been drawn to them as private houses. Three of the houses she came close to buying have always stayed in her mind - one in Herbert Place, one in Lower Pembroke Street, one in Merrion Square - and became the settings of these stories.

Review :
"BOOK OF THE WEEK" -THE LADY Magazine, London: "Dublin's Georgian townhouses act as settings, characters and multilayered symbols in three compelling novellas, set after the financial crash of 2008. A young couple drift apart as they face the threat of losing their home. A wealthy widow is haunted by her perceived failure as a mother to a bland and money-grubbing son. A woman whose husband died just after their honeymoon becomes a recluse in her vast, inherited house, attended by grateful tenants who could otherwise not afford to live there. Rooms stand for the characters' emotional ghosts, such as in the case of the reclusive Maud, who avoids her opulent dining room where her wedding gifts are still unopened. The houses have biographies as carefully plotted as their inhabitants. Described in vivid detail, the reconfigurations of interiors - from grand colonial residences to desirable flats, meagre bedsits or modern mansions - chart developments in Ireland's troubled history. Symbols of a violent colonial past, and of modern-day bankers' greed, the houses are beautiful objects that elicit conflicted responses. These deeply affecting stories depict a precarious world of evictions and repossessions, where acts of kindness sound a bright redemptive note. A powerful study of the human cost of financial collapse." --THE LADY; --- "A stylish production, and undoubtedly stylish tales." --BOOKS IRELAND Magazine; --- "...firmly rooted in modern day Dublin, reflecting Irish society after the economic collapse of 2008... The idea behind the book must draw in anyone...who does not live in one of the grand Georgian houses that characterize Dublin but who has often wondered just what life is like behind those elegant neo-classical doors. ... Haunting all the stories is the history of the houses in which the action takes place. ... D'Ecca has performed the challenging task of dealing with difficult subjects with a light touch and even humour. ... She has imaginatively responded to our curiosity about these old Georgian houses as she reveals three domestic dramas which take place in three different types of household. There is wit and charm here but also portrayals of the hardships and cruelties that lie beneath the surface." -- MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW, U.S.A.