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Second edition

Paperback – 210 x 250 mm – 160 pages

165 colour illustrations

ISBN 9781843681489

Ruskin is one of the most influential and exhilarating writers in English. Art critic, architectural visionary, social reformer, climate warner and incomparable teacher; Ruskin’s words not only transformed Victorian England but speak to us with increasing urgency today. This, the first general introduction to Ruskin for many years, places him in the social, economic and aesthetic world of Victorian Britain that he transformed – and shows how this transformation has much to teach us today. The extensive illustrations range from private notes and lecture diagrams to presentation drawings, including some of the most beautiful images of the nineteenth century and many never before published.

Kevin Jackson (1955-2021) was a writer, broadcaster, filmmaker and pataphysician. He produced scores of television and radio programmes for the BBC, worked as the assistant arts editor of The Independent, and wrote over twenty books. His books include A Ruskin Alphabet (2000), The Worlds of John Ruskin (2010), Carnal (2014) and Coles to Jerusalem: A Pilgrimage to the Holy Land with Rev. Richard Coles.

Brilliantly introduces Ruskin to the general reader and offers insights into his continuing relevance
Heather Birchall, Art Quarterly

Jackson’s pacy text is a masterly compression of an extraordinary life, offering at every juncture some apt historical context… among the 165 full-colour images are many outstanding and little- known masterpieces of the kind that only Ruskin’s keen eye could produce
Stephen Wildman, Art Newspaper

A fine tribute, generously illustrated
Sunday Telegraph

One of the most remarkable men, not only of England and our time but of all countries at all times, he was of those rare men who think with their hearts
Leo Tolstoy

The author of the most splendid pages in our language
Henry James

The best watercolourist of the second half of the 19th century
Kenneth Clark

I was determined to change my life in accordance with the ideals of the book
Gandhi, on Unto this Last

How much I admire him, listen to him, seek to understand him and to obey him
Marcel Proust