Product Description

This "tour de force of analysis" (Joel Agee) examines the life and work of the prolific, visionary writer, painter and critic. Kemp finds in Ruskin's life -- which spanned the same years as Queen Victoria's and thus embodied the Victorian era itself -- a faithful mirror of the history and psychological evolution of his age.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1999607 in Books
• Published on: 1992-08-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 528 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Examining the English critic alongside Byron, Carlyle, Karl Kraus and others of his time, and considering views of him given by Shaw and Proust, the author, a German art historian, contends that Ruskin (1819-1900) was a reflection of Victorian history and pathology. Kemp regards him as not only a major reformer, educator and ecologist, but also as a great realistic draftsman whose drawings reveal developing emotional instability. Increasingly, Ruskin's attention moved from art to society as he came to criticize capitalism, religion, technology, the destruction of nature--and himself. First sightseer, then see-er, finally seer and mythmaker, Ruskin in his old age became industry as well as institution: there were Ruskin ceramics and linens, even Ruskin cigars. This distinguished work, gracefully translated, is illustrated with portraits of the critic and drawings by him.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Artist, writer, and world traveler, Ruskin moved vigorously through Victorian times with a unique view of the way things were and a strong conviction regarding the way they should be. His ideas, whether aesthetic, moral, or political, influenced lay audiences as well as his artistic and intellectual peers. The portraits that open each chapter of this book provide a literal as well as literary depiction of this man, too often seen as either saint or madman. But though the renewed interest in Ruskin may allow for a more balanced view of the man and his ideas, this somewhat awkward translation of a 1983 introduction for German audiences is too superficial to provide such a portrait.
-Paula Frosch, Metropolitan Museum of Art Lib., New York
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Customer Reviews

The Desire of My Eyes
Very extensive biography of a man who was a Man of his Time, the Victorian Era and who was both a "seer and a prophet". His ideas about the preservation of nature, economics and social reform still resonate today.

Very good book.
This is really good book