Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres

Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres began as a gift for friends: Henry Adams (1838-1918), American historian and man of letters, printed it privately in 1904 and only allowed Houghton Mifflin to publish a trade edition in 1913, at the urging of the architect Ralph Adams Cram and under the sponsorship of the American Institute of Architects. Framed as a tour for an imaginary niece, the book reads the Norman abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel and the cathedral of Chartres as expressions of the unified faith of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, with the cult of the Virgin Mary at its center. Adams conceived it as the companion to The Education of Henry Adams, his study of modern multiplicity. Architects, medievalists, and travelers have kept it in print ever since. Free PDF download available on BDeBooks.