Selected Writings

This is the only general anthology of Ruskin's writing currently available.

Growing status of Ruskin as a major Victorian writer; his centenary in 2002 prompted a BBC1 documentary, a show at the Tate and two critical biographies. There is a growing need for an up-to-date and critically informed selection from his major work.

Extracts range across the wide variety of Ruskin's texts, from the early 1840s to the late 1880s, and include representative material from each of the major works, ranging in length from 900 to 13,000 words.

The introduction assumes no prior knowledge of Ruskin's life and thought, and outlines both in their contemporary context, making it clear why his writing is still relevant today. Includes some of Ruskin's own illustrations.

Ruskin was the most powerful and influential critic of the nineteenth century. He wrote about nature, art, architecture, politics, history, myth, and much besides; all his work is characterized by a clarity of vision as unsettling and intense now as it was for his first readers. This new selection draws on the whole range of his astonishingly varied output, from the passionate celebration of J. M. W. Turner's painting in the first volume of Modern Painters (1843) to Praeterita (1885-9), the elegiac autobiography of his later years. The introduction outlines Ruskin's life and thought, and shows why he remains such a rewarding writer today.