&sq=&lang=&file=File:1st_edition_hardback_book_cover_of_Period_Piece.jpg) First UK edition | |
| Author | Gwen Raverat |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Gwen Raverat |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Memoir |
| Published |
|
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| OCLC | 475803 |
Period Piece: A Cambridge Childhood[1] is a 1952 autobiographical memoir by the English wood engraver Gwen Raverat covering her childhood in late 19th-century Cambridge society. The book includes anecdotes about and illustrations of many of her extended family (see Darwin–Wedgwood family).
As the author explains in the preface it is "a circular book" and although it begins with the meeting of her parents (Sir George Darwin and Maud du Puy) and ends with Gwen as a student at The Slade, it is not written chronologically, but rather arranged in a series of fifteen themed chapters, each dealing with a particular aspects of life. The book is illustrated throughout with wood engravings by the author.
The book is dedicated to her cousin Frances Cornford.
It was originally published by Faber & Faber in 1952 in hardback and as a paperback in 1960. It was reviewed in The Times[2] and by David Daiches in The Manchester Guardian[3]
Period Piece has been translated into Danish (Min forunderlige barndom, 1980), Swedish (Så var det då : min barndom i Cambridge, 1985) and German (Eine Kindheit in Cambridge, 1991).[4]
- ^ Raverat, Gwen (1960). Period Piece. London: Faber & Faber. ISBN 0-571-06742-5.
- ^ Childhood Memories Cambridge In The Nineties. The Times, Wednesday, Oct 15, 1952; pg. 3; Issue 52443; col F
- ^ A CAMBRIDGE CHILDHOOD David Daiches. The Manchester Guardian (1901-1959) [Manchester (UK)] 28 Oct 1952: 4
- ^ OCLC 466739499, 57769013, 75439189