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The Lamp of Memory

'All books are divisible into two classes, the books of the hour, and the books of all time'   John Ruskin

John Ruskin was born in London in 1819. He became a towering literary figure in the nineteenth century, known for his writings on both art and on political economy. He became the first Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford University in 1869. John Ruskin died in 1900.

John Ruskin overturned Victorian society&rsquo;s ideas about art and architecture, arguing that ancient buildings must be conserved for their deep, mystical links with the past and that creative design is essential &ndash; not for financial gain, but to communicate eternal human truths. 
 
Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves &ndash; and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives &ndash; and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.

Unto This Last and Other Writings

John Ruskin (1819-1900) was an artist, scientist, poet, environmentalist, philosopher, and the pre-eminent art critic of his time.

First and foremost an outcry against injustice and inhumanity, Unto this Last is also a closely argued assault on the science of political economy, which dominated the Victorian period. Ruskin was a profoundly conservative man who looked back to the Middle Ages as a Utopia, yet his ideas had a considerable influence on the British socialist movement. And in making his powerful moral and aesthetic case against the dangers of unhindered industrialization he was strangely prophetic. This volume shows the astounding range and depth of Ruskin's work, and in an illuminating introduction the editor reveals the consistency of Ruskin's philosophy and his adamant belief that questions of economics, art and science could not be separated from questions of morality. In Ruskin's words, 'There is no Wealth but Life.'

Praeterita And Dilecta

The finest editions available of the world's greatest classics from Homer to Achebe, Tolstoy to Ishiguro, Proust to Pullman, printed on a fine acid-free, cream-wove paper that will not discolour with age, with sewn, full cloth bindings and silk ribbon markers, and at remarkably low prices. All books include substantial introductions by major scholars and contemporary writers, and comparative chronologies of literary and historical context.

Written in the 1880s, this autobiography of one of Britain's most famous art critics of the 19th century describes his upbringing in a respectable Victorian household, his Continental travels, his friends and relations and the development and refinement of his aesthetic tastes. An introduction by Kenneth Clark sets "Praeterita" in its proper context and draws attention to its particular merits. Also included in this work are Ruskin's supplement of letters, diary notes and extracts from literature, and a glossary identifying many of the people named in the book.

No autobiographer surpasses Ruskin in freshness and fulness of memory, nor in the power of giving interest to the apparently commonplace. The story fascinates

To call Praeterita an autobiography is to tell only part of the truth. A book like no other, by oneof the greatest masters of English prose., it is less a narrative than the prismatic sotry of an extraordinary mind and a passionate heart told in terms of the author's aesthetic education. Ruskin was not merely the most important anglophone art critic and social commentator of the late nineteenth century: for his admirers - who included Proust - he was a Tolstoyan figure with the magic of an artist and the moral authority of a sage. Yet above all he was loved as a personality by friends and readers alilke, and it is the individual human qualitites which shine through the mercurial pages of Praeterita

On Art and Life

You've had The Big Read, now here comes The Big Think.

Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization, and helped make us who we are.

John Ruskin

Books by John Ruskin

Articles featuring John Ruskin

Where to start reading the Penguin Little Black Classics

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