“At Day’s Close is uncommonly welcome, for it covers ground that just about all others have ignored. . . . [Ekirch] writes exceptionally well. . . . The range of his research is both broad and deep.”
—Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post
“At Day’s Close is the best sort of bottom-up history, taking nighttime—half of existence—and rendering it new and strange and full of marvels.”
—Fritz Lanham, Houston Chronicle
“Wise and compendious. . . . Ekirch’s command of the material is impressive. . . . It truly is a labor of love.”
—Ian Pindar, The Guardian
“A triumph of social history. Almost every page contains something to surprise the reader. . . . The great achievement of At Day’s Close is precisely its invasion of privacy: it shines a torch through the curtains of our ancestors and gives us a glimpse of them at their most vulnerable. Watching them blink back is one of the most enjoyable literary experiences of the year.”
—Damian Thompson, Mail on Sunday
“A magisterial history of nighttime.”
—Jay Walljasper, Ode Magazine
“Night-time has been curiously ignored by social historians. This fine book, the fruit of 20 years’ diurnal and nocturnal work by an American professor of history, corrects that lack. . . . Entertaining and informative.”
—Ross Leckie, Sunday Times
“A glorious book. . . . Captivating.”
—De Morgen (Brussels)
“A fascinating panorama of social history.”
—Wirtschaftsblatt (Vienna)
“In his fascinating survey of the dark hours of the pre-industrial era, A. Roger Ekirch takes us deep into an age when the very lack of light threw life into confusion. . . . Ekirch’s profound understanding of the period provides such enlightening details. . . . This engrossing book illuminates the darker recesses of the past.”
—Philip Hoare, Sunday Telegraph
“Meticulously researched. . . . At Day’s Close is a splendid book. . . . [It is] great entertainment, and to social historians it will be of immense value.”
—Sir Patrick Moore, Times Higher Education Supplement
“A vivid panorama of nighttime customs in city and country, among peasants and courtiers. . . . At Day’s Close relentlessly makes clear how much our comforts separate us from previous generations—and how much our conquest of night has cost us in fellowship and imagination. . . . Stands with other pioneering scholarship on natural phenomena . . . that has taught us how much culture needs nature, perhaps more than the other way around.”
—William Howarth, Preservation
“At Day’s Close . . . has been getting some of the most enthusiastic reviews of the year. This is the sort of life’s work that you wish every book could be. . . . The result is a vivid account, rich in surprising anecdote. . . . [It is] the sort of book that, paradoxically, brings the past closer by showing how radically different it was from our own time. You’ll never look at nighttime the same way once you’ve read it.”
—Tom Nissley, senior editor, Amazon.com
“This innovative, scholarly book offers a fresh perspective on early modern Europe. . . . Gracefully written and richly illustrated.”
—S. Bailey, Choice
“A can’t-put-down volume. . . . Ekirch succeeds marvelously.”
—Jackie Loohauis, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
“[Ekirch] carries us into the night, both literally and metaphorically. . . . A truly valuable book.”
—Jane Davis, Decatur Daily
“At Day’s Close is not only distinct (one is hard-pressed to think of another book like it) but also consistently entertaining. . . . An elegy for times past.”
—Bill Eichenberger, Columbus Dispatch
“Rigorously researched. . . . An impressively original book. Ekirch’s primary achievement here is in giving the distinct culture of night its first real history, and cataloging what strange creatures we become after dark.”
—Brad Quinn, Daily Yomiuri (Tokyo)
“Rhythmic and often poetic prose. . . . A fascinating book. . . . We have forgotten what that dark reign was like, but At Day’s Close does a marvelous job of bringing it back to life for us.”
—Andrew Hudgins, Raleigh News & Observer
“Now and then a book can be called amazing. Here is such a book.”
—Ron Kirbyson, Winnipeg Free Press Review
Frontispiece: Peter Paul Rubens, Return from the Fields, seventeenth century.
Copyright © 2005 by A. Roger Ekirch
All rights reserved
First published as a Norton paperback 2006
For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to
Permissions, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110
Book design by Rhea Braunstein
Production manager: Andrew Marasia
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ekirch, A. Roger, 1950–
At day’s close : night in times past / A. Roger Ekirch.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-393-05089-0 (hardcover)
1. Social history. 2. Night—History. 3. Night—Social aspects. I. Title.
HN8.E48 2005
306.4—dc22
2005002784
ISBN-13: 978-0-393-32901-8 pbk.
ISBN-10: 0-393-32901-1 pbk.
W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10110
www.wwnorton.com
W. W. Norton & Company Ltd., Castle House, 75/76 Wells Street, London W1T 3QT
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