Ruskin, John. (1819 - 1900).
W o r k
- the most influential art critic of the Victorian era
- mingles a scientific enthusiasm x a semi-religious wonder
- his books are complements to one another: grow from related roots but develop in particular ways
Unto This Last (1860 - 1862):
- a series of essays
- criticises the complacent economic and social laissez-faire
- applies basic Christianity to a mechanized civilization he finds morally and aesthetically repugnant
Modern Painters (1843, 1846, 1856, 1860):
- a series of experimental essays
- places the paintings of William Turner in various contexts
The Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849):
- a treatise on the art of building
The Stones of Venice (1851 - 1853):
- interweaves aesthetics and morality
- sees the triumph and decline of Venice as a paradigm for Victorian Britain
Praeterita (1885 - 1889):
- his autobiography
- concerned with his private discovery of nature and art
Quote
"You talk of the scythe of Time, and the tooth of Time: I tell you, Time is scytheless and toothless; it is we who gnaw like the worm — we who smite like the scythe. It is ourselves who abolish — ourselves who consume: we are the mildew, and the flame."
From A Joy for Ever (1857).
Basics
(Picture: Wikimedia Commons).
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Author
John Ruskin. (1819 - 1900). British. -
Work
Art critic. Social critic. Essayist and prose writer. -
Genre
Victorian prose (non-fiction).
Literature
Abrams, Meyer Howard, ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York: W. W. Norton, 1993.
Barnard, Robert. Stručné dějiny anglické literatury. Praha: Brána, 1997.
Baugh, Albert C. ed. A Literary History of England. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1967.
Coote, Stephen. The Penguin Short History of English Literature. London: Penguin, 1993.
Sampson, George. The Concise Cambridge History of English Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1946.
Sanders, Andrew. The Short Oxford History of English Literature. New York: Clarendon Press, 1994.