AROUND HOME : The Elegant Table

BY BARBARA WIRTH (Harry N. Abrams, Inc.; 1988)

ONE CAN’T help but be impressed by this lavish volume featuring table settings designed by 70 of France’s talented hosts and hostesses. The book is divided into meal sections--including lunch at the office, soliloquies, tete-a-tete meals and grand soirees--each with an introductory essay dotted with tidbits about the host, the china, the house: “Emblazoned with a double seal--for Chateau-Lafite, one of the world’s finest vineyards, and for the Rothschild family--the dining room at Lafite, pale green with white paneling, seems conceived to celebrate a unique and marvelous experience.” But inspiration and romantic fantasies are elicited more by the 150 full-color photographs by French photographer Pascal Hinous, making this truly a book for any lover of pretty things. ($75)