" His wife, she was told by a chatty guidebook, had been born in Paris, and had taken Directoire ideas and married them to Old British Empire with verandahs. It was built of red brick with cornices and gargoyles and was so very, very vulgar that it was magnificent. Its total disregard of all canons of taste was dramatic and oddly endearing. "

― Kerry Greenwood , Death at Victoria Dock (Phryne Fisher, #4)