Wednesday, October 03, 2012

The 10 best fictional architects

For the Observer, Rowan Moore came up with a list of the ten best fictional architects. One character on the list:
Seth Pecksniff, Martin Chuzzlewit

Seth Pecksniff, in Dickens’s Martin Chuzzlewit, was created when the architectural profession in Britain was defining itself. He is a sanctimonious hypocrite who charges students tuition fees, then passes off their work as his own, though believes himself to be a highly moral being. “Some people likened him to a direction-post,” said Dickens, “which is always telling the way to a place, and never goes there.” Sadly, such qualities have been found in some architects since Dickens’s time.
Read about another architect on Moore's list.

Sairey Gamp in Martin Chuzzlewit is one of David McKie's top ten eccentrics in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue