Sleeping Around: The Bed from Antiquity to Now

Abstract

The book's subtitle The Bed from Antiquity to Now impresses by its enormous time span, and suggests an account of the historic development of the bed in Western civilization. This suggestion proves to be wrong, however, for its scope is even broader. The authors’ love affair with the bed encompasses not only different types of beds, bedding and sleeping mats from all over the world, and of all ages, but also representations of beds and sleeping in ancient and modern art, photography, film, funeral rituals and grave markers. Lavishly illustrated with images of superb quality the book is a feast for the eyes. As such it qualifies more as a coffee-table book on the global variety of beds and bedding than as a cultural history of sleeping. The main obstacle in reviewing this book from an academic point of view is the overall lack of precision in defining its subject...

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