'It is impossible for anyone to read any of his works without at once admitting this - they are so overflowing with zeal, talent & taste.'
John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury,
writing about Pugin to Ambrose Phillipps.
Contrasts or a Parallel between the Noble Edifices of the Middle Ages and Corresponding Buildings of the Present Day; shewing the Present Decay of Taste

First published in 1836, Contrasts was the book that rapidly made Pugin's name. It was the first revolutionary architectural manifesto of the nineteenth century and remains the first great canonical work of modern Western architecture. In a devastating text and a series of satirical 'before and now' etchings Pugin contrasted the glories of medieval architecture and its civilised society with the tired classical constructions that were the product of the degraded, modern industrial city.

An enlarged, edition of Contrasts appeared in 1841 and included some of the most enduring architectural images ever published. This is the edition presented here, but the introduction also includes a rarely-seen plate that appears only in the 1836 edition, contrasting what Pugin regarded as the inadequacies of Sir John's Soane's house with the ornate timber architecture of a sixteenth-century house in Rouen.

The True Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture

In fiery, uncompromising and often amusing language, the 29-year-old Pugin set out his 'great rules for design' to the world at large. True Principles struck deeply sympathetic chords among his readers and persuaded them of the need for honest, natural design, the revival of forgotten crafts and the symbolic meaning of every detail of construction. Through its original and provocative pages, Pugin demonstrated that he was not only a designer of genius and a tireless propagandist, but also a great creative thinker, persuasive teacher and discerning critic.

The Pugin Society Edition

This volume presents in facsimile two of the greatest and most important texts ever published on architecture and design. With their wit and passion, sincerity and single-mindedness they had an enormous impact, shaping the way people designed buildings and even how they felt about them. So many of our own received notions about the build environment derive from Pugin's Contrasts and True Principles.

All too rarely do great architects make great writers - not so Pugin. With a lively text and humourous illustrations, the 24-year-old burst upon the world with his satirical Contrasts and followed on five years later with the True Principles with Nikolaus Pevsner considered his most influential statement.

The context and enormous significance of the two works is explained in perceptive introductions by one of today's leading Pugin scholars, Timothy Brittain-Catlin, who teaches architectural history at the Kent School of Architecture, University of Kent. A qualified architect, he has recently completed his doctorate at Cambridge University on Pugin's houses and convents.

Spire Books and the Pugin Society have worked closely together to ensure this superb gold-embossed hard cover, 256-page facsimile edition, closely replicates Pugin's original work.

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