The Little House

Exemplary of an 18th-century literary genre that combined fictional narrative with didactic observations on art and architecture, The Little House tells the tale of a seduction in a maison de plaisance outside of Paris. The house itself - its architecture, gardens, artwork, and furnishings - is the central element of a story in which an impressionable woman mistakes good taste for good intentions, with unforseen results. The Little House, long an underground classic among architectural historians and theorists, has never before been published in English. Anthony Vidler's insightful preface and Rodolphe el-Khoury's informative introduction, notes, and careful translation make the novella more accessible to the contemporary reader.