The story is a bit of an excess in hypocrisy (which does not detract from the quality of the text or the house): "A card-carrying member of the French Communis

The story is a bit of an excess in hypocrisy (which does not detract from the quality of the text or the house): "A card-carrying member of the French Communist Party, Dalsace hosted a variety of Marxist thinkers" "when they had guests, they used a glamorous, broad staircase, which has no rails and seems to float in midair" "A tearoom has a small port on a metal pivot, which allowed the service staff to deliver tea or coffee without having to walk all the way around and into the room." "Writing in “Experience and Poverty” in 1933, a year after the Maison de Verre was completed, Benjamin reflected on its entirely glass facade as the architectural analog to Communism." "The house was designed to its owners’ very personality—a house like a Swiss watch, perfection and utility in every tiny gear." "Aline Vellay, Jean’s daughter, decided she wanted to sell the house to the French government, hoping it could be opened to the public as a national landmark. For unexplained reasons, the government didn’t want it." Few things scream Gauche caviar as this story does.