"There have been many books about Victorian and Edwardian houses, but this is the first to concentrate on the taste of the nouveaux riches. Not just the rich but the very rich: millionaires and multi-millionaires who grew wealthy in the aftermath of the Industrial Revolution." "This book describes the houses of the richest nouveaux riches - the Rothschilds, the Guinnesses, the Beits and the Brasseys, the Barings, the Wernhers, the Tennants, the Sassoons - and explains the economic and social context which sustained their extraordinary lifestyles. The impact of their wealth on the fabric of fashionable society was striking."--Jacket.