A certain discreet industry insider (let’s call him Simon) with a determination to furnish his flat in perennial style, but also on a budget, recently described his brilliant plan to take as inspiration Lawrence Seldon’s rooms in Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth. While the grandest interiors tend to last by being passed down through generations of a family who would never throw out the Chippendale or part with the Gainsborough, it can be harder to find more attainable real-life rooms of age. And so writers of taste who described such scenes are of value (let’s not forget that Wharton also wrote The Decoration of Houses – which is still referred to by interior designers today).