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Icon and Devotion: Sacred Spaces in Imperial Russia / Oleg Tarasov

Review Date:

1 Jun 2004

Some books enlighten and disappoint at the same time. This is how I felt having read Oleg Tarasov’s book. Originally Tarasov’s doktorskaia dissertatsiia (the second PhD), the book was first published in Russian and has now been painstakingly translated by Robin Milner-Gulland and lavishly published by Reaktion Books.

Europe at Home. Family and Material Culture, 1500-1800[Originally published under the title Vita di casa. Abitare, mangiare, vestire nell’Europa moderna (Laterza; Rome/Bari, 1999); translated by Allan Cameron] / Raffaella Sarti

Review Date:

1 Jun 2003

I do not know whether the Italian title of this book (Vita di casa) is an allusion to Mario Praz and his autobiography La casa della vita (Milan, 1958), but it would be fitting. In that book Mario Praz guides the reader through his Roman house and tells his life during the tour.