Charleston Style Then and Now

What at first looks like a city booster's tour book of historic Charleston, this condensed version of Charleston Style: Past and Present holds high ambitions, namely capturing something of the grand decrepitude and dark complexity of Southern literature in the architecture and interior decorating of this charming port city. In brief profiles of local architectural prizes, with styles ranging from the Greek Revival to the Oriental, Sully paints a portrait of European, Caribbean and Asian influences. Steeped in memory and Old World manners, Charleston appears as a self-aware, cosmopolitan, vaguely haunted locale, caught between a sensual present and a seductive, perhaps decadent, past. Although the photos by Blais tend towards the antiseptic, Sully's text is richly voiced, and she enthusiastically educates the reader on the finer points of Charlestonian native childhood. Full of nostalgia, modesty and a bit of pretension, this book reveals Charleston's unique brand of regional sophistication, and the graceful style that it has cultivated as its own.