Death and Architecture - Book Review

Contemporary Review, Jan, 2003

Death and Architecture. James Stevens Curl. Sutton Publishing. [pounds sterling]25.00 (US$36.00). 415 pages. ISBN 0-7509-2877-8. This venerable tide has a long history. It was first published as A Celebration of Death in 1980 by Constable; a second, revised edition was published by Batsford in 1993 and now Sutton has brought out a new version of the 1993 edition with a new preface and an updated bibliography.

It remains the finest survey of this subject in print. With no pun intended one may call this a monumental survey. The sub-tide describes the book's remit: 'An Introduction to Funerary and Commemorative Buildings in the Western European Tradition, with Some Consideration of Their Settings'. Because death has 'inspired great art and architecture' the author bemoans the modern British denial of death and the destruction of its monuments and hopes that this history will help to stop the rot. The sweep of this survey is truly magisterial, beginning as it does with the ancient world and ending with the war g raves of the twentieth century with a final chapter on buildings and structures erected to commemorate the departed.