Household Words

A dreamy young barrister, half in love and wholly out of step with the law, wanders through Temple chambers and exhibition rooms with comic self-awareness, only to be unsettled by a shabby stranger on a storm-tossed ferry who seems to summon a whole gallery of literary and historical ghosts. That man turns out to be a professional Model, and his bitter, funny confession exposes how artists carve the human body into fragments until it becomes a "regular monster" in paint, a satire sharpened years later when he reappears in a beard as the eerie "Ghost of Art," proof that fashion can manufacture emotion, character, even death itself. From there the book turns its wit on public institutions and architectural vanity, attacking competitions that exploit inventors and designers, reward only a single winner, and favor spectacle over fairness, function, and safety. Extravagant plans for a temporary building are mocked for their towers, gardens, and iron-and-glass fantasies. Against this public world of vanity stands a deeply felt Irish domestic tragedy: a poor family is worn down by road work, hunger, illness, and the father's death, while a mother's sacrifice and a little girl's devotion lead to heartbreaking loss, quiet death, and a final widening into elegy for human fragility and neglected history. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.