The Age of Comfort

When Paris Discovered Casual--and the Modern Home Began

By Joan DeJean

A critically acclaimed historian of France and French culture identifies the moment in modern history when informality and comfort first became priorities, causing a sudden transformation in the worlds of architecture and interior decoration that would last for centuries.

Today it is difficult to imagine a living room without a sofa. When the first sofas on record were delivered in seventeenth-century France, the result was a radical reinvention of interior space. Symptomatic of a new age of casualness and comfort, the sofa ushered in an era known as the golden age of conversation; as the first piece of furniture designed for two, it was also considered an invitation to seduction. At the same moment came many other changes in interior space we now take for granted: private bedrooms, bathrooms, and the original living rooms.

None of this could have happened without a colorful cast of visionaries—legendary architects, the first interior designers, and the women who shaped the tastes of two successive kings of France: Louis XIV's mistress the Marquise de Maintenon and Louis XV's mistress the Marquise de Pompadour. Their revolutionary ideas would have a direct influence on realms outside the home, from clothing to literature and gender relations, changing the way people lived and related to one another for the foreseeable future.

Reviews for The Age of Comfort:

"In this fascinating and carefully researched volume (reminiscent of Fernand Braudel's "The Structures of Everyday Life") DeJean considers the evolution of each room in the modern home. She looks at the effects of new objects on body language, family configurations and the larger community. This way of looking at history, moving outward from the particulars of everyday life, is particularly thrilling."—Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times. Reaf full review.

"In her fascinating, immensely readable new book.historian Joan DeJean describes how the French court of the late 17th and early 18th century century-and the small army of architects, and designers who attended to its needs-transformed the way we think about personal space and furniture.. One of these innovations, the fauteuils a coiffer, was an armchair with a heart-shaped back that allowed a woman to recline and place her hair in a basin for washing-and it was made specially for the Duchesse de Bourgogne, Louis XV's mother. No wonder a good haircut makes us feel just a little bit like royalty."—Elizabeth Angell, Allure.com

A nice, brief review for THE AGE OF COMFORT by Joan DeJean was included in The Boston Globe calling the book a "fascinating and surprising study"!!

"Many histories that chronicle the life of an idea make it sound as if change, like the weather, happened as the result of mysterious forces, affecting everyone but brought on by no one. This one gives us the vivid personalities who broke with convention by following their own whims.. You don't need to be a Francophile to read this book, but you will be one by the time you finish it."—The New York Times Style Magazine. Read the feature.

Listen to Joan DeJeanon on WHYY-FM's Radio Times"

“The Age of Comfort: When Paris Discovered Casual — And the Modern Home Began” ($28), a new book by Joan DeJean, a cultural historian, shows how it not only helped transform the way homes were designed but also struck a blow to longstanding norms of social order. — Julie Scelfo, Q&A in The New York Times. Read article.

“This lively and engaging volume…. is a uniquely focused social history that will find broad appeal among scholars and casual historians alike.”— Joan DeJean, The Magazine Antiques. Read review.

“An entertaining account of how home life was virtually reinvented in Paris from 1670 to 1765…. DeJean’s latest is well researched and brimming with anecdotes and architectural and design details.”—Publishers Weekly