Warm and Snug: The History of the Bed

by Lawrence Wright

Book Overview

In this richly detailed book, Lawrence Wright takes an amusing and entertaining look at the place where we spend a third of our lives -- bed. From a Neolithic stone bed unearthed at Skara Brae to the bed (c. 1350 BC) from Tutankhamen's tomb, from stark Anglo-Saxon designs to ornate early Renaissance beds and elaborate State bedchambers, this is a fascinating journey through the history of social, sexual and sanitary attitudes to the design of beds...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0710023316
• ISBN13: 9780710023315
• Release Date: January 1962
• Publisher: Routledge & Kegan Paul
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Light and comforting as a featherbed

Though it seems to have been well researched, this is not a scholarly work, at least not the usual kind. It is, rather, an informative, offbeat, and (at least to my mind) very funny account of humankind's efforts over the centuries to get a decent night's sleep. The arrangements, contraptions, and methods employed have been astonishingly varied and mostly unsatisfactory. Mr. Wright (a onetime R.A.F officer as I recall) is a graceful and witty writer, joining a somewhat Will Cuppy-ish sensibility to a smooth and civilized style. This has been for many years one of my favorite books (in the 1962 Routledge & Kegan Paul hardcover edition), and I'm delighted to see it back in print.