Rosemary Hill has brilliantly woven together research on England's nineteenth-century Gothic Revival architect A. W. N. Pugin (1812–52) with the major cultural and societal events of the time to create a stunningly thoughtful, and somewhat brutally honest, portrayal of the man and his design work. Throughout the book, Pugin's incredible life story is revealed; from his birth in London to middle-class parents who nurtured his love of Gothic design to his early death from what “circumstantial evidence” (492) suggests was syphilis. The result of extensive research, Hill's biography immerses the reader in the life and times of one of England's most extraordinary and influential Gothic Revival architects.

The book is divided into six parts; relaying in logical sequence the progression of events and circumstances that shaped Pugin's life. In part 1 the reader is introduced to Pugin's parents, Auguste Charles Pugin and Catherine Welby. At the time they discovered they were expecting a child, they “had been married nearly nine years. They were middle-aged and established where they would remain, on the shabbier fringes of artistic and intellectual London life” (41).

Part 2 begins with Pugin's birth, and we see the impact parental influence has on his childhood. A fine draftsman and antiquarian, Auguste passes his passion for Gothic architecture on to his only child, and thus begins Pugin's lifetime interest in the subject. Catherine is shown to be a loving and intellectual force who shares in “his enthusiasms, learning about architecture, admiring his drawings and encouraging his precocious talent” (61). We learn about his first careers as a furniture designer for George IV at age fifteen and later as a scenery designer in Covent Garden.

Part 3 continues the account as Pugin begins his architectural practice in the early 1830s. He designs and builds his first house during this period and becomes involved with Charles Barry in the rebuilding of the Houses of Parliament. He is married a second time. His conversion to Catholicism in 1834 was a turning point, and the influence on his career and his life is significant. His first polemic, Contrasts, is written and self-published in 1836, garnering him notoriety in religious and architectural circles “mark[ing] the beginning of Pugin's public career and the effective end of Georgian architecture” (159).

In part 4 we see public reaction to Contrasts as Pugin's architectural career grows and develops in the midst of religious debates during the late 1830s and the mid-1840s. His commissions include schools, convents, churches, and homes, and he works at a furious pace. He builds relationships with powerful “Romantic Catholic” (169) supporters that will last for his lifetime. In early 1844 An Apology “was written by an architect just entering his thirties, with seven years’ experience, longing to spread his own creative wings” (280). His identity as a Catholic Gothic Revival architect is being recognized by the public.

Part 5 begins in the fall of 1844 and finds Pugin a widower for the second time, with a house filled with six children. He designs and builds a home for the family in Ramsgate, where he will live for the rest of his life. Earlier contact had been made with Tractarians at Oxford and members of the Cambridge Camden Society, but by 1845 “these movements, from which Pugin had hoped for so much, were fragmented” (339). Pugin develops his own architectural philosophies that at times counter those of the university men. His was an emotional attachment to Gothic, rather than an intellectual one. “Pugin worked, thinking as he wrote and developing his buildings in dialogue with his theories rather than theorizing first and building afterwards” (252). His book True Principles is published, and his work life continues at a frantic pace, with much effort extended to the work on the Houses of Parliament. He finds himself, to his dismay, designing more decorative objects than architectural commissions, and his health deteriorates.

Part 6 chronicles the last years of Pugin's life, from mid-1848 to his death in September 1852. During this period he marries for a third time, and two more children are born. Pugin takes a major role in setting up the “Medieval Court” in the Crystal Palace in 1851. The years of frantic working and traveling seem to have finally caught up with him, and he begins to experience increasing hallucinations and exhaustion. During the last months of his life, he is in and out of hospitals, having a variety of treatments to ease the symptoms of what is thought to be a venereal disease contracted in his young adulthood. Finally, he is brought home by his wife to die quietly at the Grange and is buried in the crypt at St. Augustine’s.

Hill follows up with a well-written summary of what transpired after Pugin's death: the somewhat grim financial situation that was left to his family and the fates of his surviving wife, children (including a child presumed to be born out of wedlock), friends, and lovers. A listing of known Pugin design work (extant, demolished, and never built) completes the book.

Appealing to modern-day Puginites, Hill has written an unerring account of Pugin's life. There is no overglorification or glossing over rough edges here. The reader is left with an unmistakable sense of Pugin's influence on architecture in England, and elsewhere, yet keenly aware of his fallibilities as a human being. Readers with an interest in early Victorian England will also find this book satisfying because, although Pugin is the central figure, the environment and circumstances in which he lived are brought to life through Hill's suburb research and writing abilities. Given the breadth of Hill's research, it is not hard to imagine how ten years were devoted to the writing of this book. Material gleaned from numerous archives and collections, even those privately held, gives particular richness to the narrative. Hill has done a masterful job of creating a stimulating read that not only outlines Pugin's life and his contributions to architectural history but sets him directly into the early Victorian milieu.