Looking at Art Nouveau from an international perspective, this text examines its origins and meaning within an art-historical, literary and social context. It covers all the major designers of the period and the environment in which they worked, describing the variation in forms and ideas expressed in key schools of thought. An important section of the book is devoted to architecture and interior design, and features cities such as Paris and Brussels, New York and Moscow, through the work of architects and designers whose names have become inextricably linked with their turn-of-the century flowering.