This book is the first to offer a complete appraisal of the life and achievements of Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, the most influential designer in nineteenth-century Britain, who invented the Gothic Revival and launched it as the state style in Britain and in many other parts of the world. Beautifully illustrated, the book contains twenty-one essays by international scholars and specialists who focus on how Pugins work in industrial and book design, architecture, the applied arts, and literature influenced opinion and revolutionized public taste.