'Philip Inman conveyed a ... specific sense of the uses of literacy for an early Labour MP. The son of a widowed charwoman, he bought up all the cheap reprints he could afford and kept notes on fifty-eight of them... There were Emerson's essays, Ruskin's Sesame and Lilies, Holmes's Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, Lamb's Essays of Elia, classic biogaphies (Boswell on Johnson, Lockhart on Scott, Carlyle on Sterling), several Waverley novels, Wuthering Heights, Don Quixote, Robinson Crusoe, Pilgrim's Progress, The Imitation of Christ, Shakespeare's sonnets, Tennyson, Browning, William Morris and Palgrave's Golden Treasury.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Philip Inman Print: Book
'When asked how books had shaped him, Labour M.P. F.W. Jowett ranged widely: Ivanhoe made him want to read, Unto this Last made him a socialist, Past and Present made him think, Vanity Fair and Les Miserables taught him human sympathy, and Wuthering Heights taught him respect for man and nature.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: F.W. Jowett Print: Book
[analysis of a female respondent in Arnold Freeman's 1918 Sheffield Survey] 'Cutlery worker, age seventy-two...Fond of Longfellow, Stevenson, Ruskin, William Morris and Charles Dickens'
Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: questionaire respondent Print: Book
'After reading at the Athenaeum a section of Ruskin's autobiography, "Praeterita", published in instalments between 1885 and 1889, Grant Duff reflected [in diary for 14 August 1889] that it was "an admirable specimen of its author's merits and defects ..."'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Grant Duff Print: Serial / periodical
'Through reading Unto This Last ... Violet Markham -- who was brought up at Tapton House, set in 85 beautiful Derbyshire acres -- began to realise that her luxuries were owed to the labour of the filthy, forlorn miners she occasionally caught sight of.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Violet Markham Print: Book
The Duchess of Sutherland to Regy Brett: 'I have dinner on a tray [and], in between mouthfuls of fried sole and partridge, read [Ruskin's] Sesame and Lilies [1865] and [Marie Corelli's] Barabbas by turn.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Millicent Duchess of Sutherland Print: Book
Letter 6/8/1858 - 'First let me thank you for your notes on Verona - & correction of my statement to the good folks on Manchester. (I will put it all right in the next edition)'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Marchioness of Waterford Print: Book
"He says careless work is a proof of something wrong in a person's whole moral character." From the editor's footnote 3 on letter W 38. "Writing in 1865, Lady Waterford, having read the beginning of Ruskin's Cestus of Aglaia (his papers on Art) commented to a friend."
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Marchioness of Waterford Print: Book
"Ford Cottage, July 18th, 1865. Have you read Ruskin's "Sesame and Lilies", his two last lectures? The book sent me to bed so unhappy, that all was wrong and out of joint, and he does not help one to mend it."
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Marchioness of Waterford Print: Book
"Ford Castle, June 1st (1866). Dear Mr Ruskin. I am reading with delight your Crown of Wild Olives trying to fit the sermon on to myself and be the better for it... Yours sincerely, L. Waterford."
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Marchioness of Waterford Print: Book
Letter B 14 - Postmark 6/12/1857 - "I can't answer at length till Monday. But you are quite right about the graver want of the book. [The Elements of Drawing, which had been published in June]. The appalling character of it is only to young ladies who think of drawing as mere recreation - assuredly no more work is asked than about half what they give to piano."
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Anna Blunden Print: Book
Letter B 71 - 3/9/1860 - "I have now your interesting letter about the Sheep-folds. I think you are right about the title, but I do not care about re-publishing the thing just now. We are on the eve of disturbances in the church which will supersede all such discussions by a general crash, out of which common sense will recover without getting its head broken."
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Anna Blunden
From the editor's short biography of Ellen Heaton - "In 1849 her brother was reading The Seven Lamps of Architecture; he found its author to be 'a great enthusiast and runs to extremes in his opinions... he seems to me to become preposterous and self-contradictory', but all was redeemed by his being 'very earnest throughout'."
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Heaton Print: Book
From the editor's short biography of Ellen Heaton: "She had read and was a 'great admirer' of the early volumes of Modern Painters.'
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Ellen Heaton Print: Book
'2 East Parade, Leeds. June 25th 1856. Ellen is rather puzzled', wrote her brother to his wife, 'on comparing the tower at Calais, with Ruskin's "delightful" description.' (Payne coll.)"
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Ellen Heaton Print: Book
Letter H 30 - January 1856 - "I am always treating you ill - but I took so many presentation copies [of the third volume of Modern Painters, published Jan 15, 1856] from the bookseller that I was ashamed to ask for more & so let you buy yours - ... I am truly glad you like it."
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Ellen Heaton Print: Book
"Yet I could not but observe the difference between the zeal with which I snatched at a volume of Carlyle or Ruskin -since these magicians were now first revealing themselves to me -and the increasing languor with which I took up Alford formy daily 'passage' [i.e of Bible study]."
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Edmund Gosse Print: Book
"Poor fellow! I really pity him; for his last numbers of the Fors [Clavigera] seem to imply growing distraction of mind, wh. is scarcely compatible with perfect sanity. Yet nobody can write better than he does still at times. I wish I could discover his secret for saying stinging things; but I suppose the secret is in a morbid sensibility wh. one would scarcely take, even for the power wh. gives it. He is a terrible wasted force.?
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Book
?There are plenty of things to groan over if so disposed; a fact wh. has been lately impressed upon me by reading some of Ruskin?s manifestoes to the world.?
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Book
"Ruskin's death has set me reading some of his books and among others 'Praeterita' in wh. I read of your first acquaintance with him."
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Book
"Ruskin's death has set me reading some of his books and among others 'Praeterita' in wh. I read of your first acquaintance with him."
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Book
'[Davies said] "Before I was twelve I had developed an appreciation of good prose, and the Bible created in me a zest for literature", propelling him directly to Lamb, Hazlitt's Essays and Ruskin's The Crown of Wild Olives. Later... he joined the library committee of the Miners' Institute in Maesteg, made friends with the librarian, and advised him on acquisitions. Thus he could read all the books he wanted: Marx, Smith, Ricardo, Mill, Marshall, economic and trade union history, Fabian Essays, Thomas Hardy, Meredith, Kipling and Dickens'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: D.R. Davies Print: Book
"Winnie Seerbohm, who left Newnham College, Cambridge in November 1885 after only one term's study, suffered from what seems retrospectively to have been nervous asthma combined with a pathological inability to swallow ... she was ordered total rest ... While she wished to be read Ruskin's Stones of Venice aloud, her sisters desisted after a couple of chapters, thinking that it was too heavy for the invalid."
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Winnie Seerbohm Print: Book
'[In The Saturday Review, 19 November 1904], "A Mother" records the books consumed since July by her sixteen-year-old daughter ... [who is] on the point of going in for the "Senior Cambridge" ... :
"Old Mortality", "The Farringdons", "By Mutual Consent" (L. T. Meade), "To Call Her Mine", "Kathrine Regina", and "Self or Bearer" (Besant); "Christmas Carol", "The Cricket on the Hearth", "Hypatia", "Concerning Isabel Carnaby", "The Virginians", "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", "The Head of the House" (E. Everett-Green), "A Double Thread", "The Heir-Presumptive and the Heir-Apparent", "Sesame and Lilies", "A Tale of Two Cities".'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book
' .... when ... [Mark Pattison] ... met [Mrs Humphry Ward] as a girl of sixteen ... she
was familiar ... with certain pieces of Ruskin's Modern Painters, which she had copied
out and carried round with her ...'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Book
[checkweighman Chester Armstrong wrote] "The fact of Ruskin's gallant and successful defence of Turner the great landscape painter, and his still more valiant stand against the orthodox economists, cast a spell over me which was irresistible... To read 'Modern Painters', 'The Seven Lamps of Architecture', 'The Stones of Venice', 'The Crown of Wild Olives', was a kind of aesthetic intoxication".
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Chester Armstrong Print: Book
[checkweighman Chester Armstrong wrote] "The fact of Ruskin's gallant and successful defence of Turner the great landscape painter, and his still more valiant stand against the orthodox economists, cast a spell over me which was irresistible... To read 'Modern Painters', 'The Seven Lamps of Architecture', 'The Stones of Venice', 'The Crown of Wild Olives', was a kind of aesthetic intoxication".
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Chester Armstrong Print: Book
[checkweighman Chester Armstrong wrote] "The fact of Ruskin's gallant and successful defence of Turner the great landscape painter, and his still more valiant stand against the orthodox economists, cast a spell over me which was irresistible... To read 'Modern Painters', 'The Seven Lamps of Architecture', 'The Stones of Venice', 'The Crown of Wild Olives', was a kind of aesthetic intoxication".
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Chester Armstrong Print: Book
[checkweighman Chester Armstrong wrote] "The fact of Ruskin's gallant and successful defence of Turner the great landscape painter, and his still more valiant stand against the orthodox economists, cast a spell over me which was irresistible... To read 'Modern Painters', 'The Seven Lamps of Architecture', 'The Stones of Venice', 'The Crown of Wild Olives', was a kind of aesthetic intoxication".
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Chester Armstrong Print: Book
'After a miserable Catholic school education...periodic unemployment allowed [Joseph Toole] to study in the Manchester Reference Library. There he discovered, Adam Smith, Ricardo, Herbert Spencer, Huxley, Mill, Emerson, Dickens, Morris, Blatchford, Shaw and Wells, and of course John Ruskin..."Study always left me with a deep feeling that there was so much amiss with the world. It seemed that it had been started at the wrong end, and that it was everybody's business to put the matter right".'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Toole Print: Book
'[Patrick McGill] read virtually nothing, not even the daily papers until, working on the rail line, he happened to pick up some poetry written on a page from an exercise book. somehow it spoke to him and he began to read "ravenously". He brought "Sartor Resartus", "Sesame and Lilies" and Montaigne's essays to work. "Les Miserables" reduced him to tears, though he found "Das Kapital" less affecting. Each payday he set aside a few shillings to buy secondhand books, which after a month's use were almost illegible with rust, grease and dirt....[eventually he] went on to become a popular novelist.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Patrick McGill Print: Book
'[Pritchett] was... unprepared for the intimidating greatness of Ruskin's "Modern Painters"... "There was too much to know. I discovered that Ruskin was not so very many years older than I was when he wrote that book".'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Victor Sawdon Pritchett Print: Book
'Uncle Richard had adored Ruskin, and worshipped Morris, and had slept for years with a copy of "In Memoriam" under his pillow. He told me once how he and his friends used to wait outside the bookshops in the early morning, when they heard that a new volume of Tennyson was to come out. He had read all Browning too, and all Wordsworth, and Carlyle, in fact nearly everything contemporary; and he constantly re-read the Classics in their own classic tongues... a triumph of timing occurred once when he was listening to the Thunderstorm in the Pastoral Symphony, and reading the thunderstorm in "Oedipus at Colonus", and a real thunderstorm took place!'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Richard Litchfield Print: Book
'We are reading the "Seven Lamps of Architecture", some part very pretty, other by writing fine [though] very nonsensical, other very powerful, and the beginnings of chapters only fit to be in German.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Mary Yonge Print: Book
?The library of the Mechanics' Institute gave me the opportunity to read some books which were then new to me, among them being, I remember, "Adam Bede", and other of George Eliot?s novels. My appetite for Ruskin had been whetted by his "Unto this Last", which I had read with care and keen appreciation. Ruskin?s works were at the time beyond the reach of my slender purse. Now I read with delight his "Crown of Wild Olive", his "Sesame and Lilies", and other of his smaller books. These, together with his "Modern Painters", I soon afterwards added to my own little library, as well as a complete set of George Eliot?s works. Next to Wordsworth I do not think any writer has influenced me more deeply and more healthily than Ruskin.?
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Burt Print: Book
?The library of the Mechanics' Institute gave me the opportunity to read some books which were then new to me, among them being, I remember, Adam Bede, and other of George Eliot?s novels. My appetite for Ruskin had been whetted by his "Unto this Last", which I had read with care and keen appreciation. Ruskin?s works were at the time beyond the reach of my slender purse. Now I read with delight his "Crown of Wild Olive", his "Sesame and Lilies", and other of his smaller books. These, together with his "Modern Painters", I soon afterwards added to my own little library, as well as a complete set of George Eliot?s works. Next to Wordsworth I do not think any writer has influenced me more deeply and more healthily than Ruskin.?
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Burt Print: Book
?The library of the Mechanics' Institute gave me the opportunity to read some books which were then new to me, among them being, I remember, "Adam Bede", and other of George Eliot?s novels. My appetite for Ruskin had been whetted by his "Unto this Last", which I had read with care and keen appreciation. Ruskin?s works were at the time beyond the reach of my slender purse. Now I read with delight his "Crown of Wild Olive", his "Sesame and Lilies", and other of his smaller books. These, together with his "Modern Painters", I soon afterwards added to my own little library, as well as a complete set of George Eliot?s works. Next to Wordsworth I do not think any writer has influenced me more deeply and more healthily than Ruskin.?
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Burt Print: Book
'Yet learn to read I did, for when I was ill in bed at the age of seven, our doctor lent me Ruskin's "King of the Golden River", and I most certainly read that. It is, in fact, the first book I can actually remember having read at all and John Ruskin, of all people, is the first author to have written his name on my mind.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Norman Nicholson Print: Book
From Elizabeth Missing Sewell's Journal, 14 August 1850:
'Ruskin's [italics]Lectures on Architecture and Painting[end italics] which I have been reading, interest and please me immensely. They certainly are dogmatical. They are disfigured by exaggerated tirades against Romanism, but they are full of wonderful thought, and an intense feeling for truth'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
A reminiscence of reading John Ruskin's autobiography, Praeterita (pub 1881-6) at work. Published in The Wheatsheaf:
'Long ago, with the engine groaning below the wooden, dusty floor of a hot winding-room in a cotton factory, I read the description of a little wood overhanging the Falls of Schaffhausen. Ruskin had written it; and in his words was the beat of the waters and the colour of the flowers, and I longed to see the reality. Yet his description is only the shadow of the real glory of those Schaffhausen meadows'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ethel Carnie Print: Book
'Ruskin's "Lectures on Architecture and Painting" which I have been reading, interest and please me immensely. They certainly are dogmatical. They are disfigured by exaggerated tirades against Romanism, but they are full of wonderful thought, and an intense feeling for truth, which must have an effect, one would think, upon those who read, or who have heard them'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
'?I am reading Ruskin?s "Stones of Venice"with great pleasure. He can [italics] write [end italics] a few, can?t he?'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book
'Our library too was a weighty affair. Shipton had the longest novel that had been published in recent years, Warren a 2,000-page work on physiology.[...] On Good Friday [...] the rest of us lay about, played chess or read the less technical portion of our curiously assorted library. This included "Gone with the Wind" (Shipton) "Seventeenth Century Verse" (Oliver), "Montaigne's Essays" (Warren), "Don Quixote" (self), "Adam Bede" (Lloyd), "Martin Chuzzlewit" (Smythe), "Stones of Venice" (Odell) and a few others. Warren, who rejoined us that day, besides his weighty tome on Physiology -in which there were several funny anecdotes if one took the trouble to look - had with him a yet weightier volume on the singularly inappropriate subject of Tropical Diseases. '
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Noel Odell Print: Book
'After breakfast we went on the Lake; and Miss B and I agreed in thinking Mr Moseley a good goose; in liking Mr Newman's soul, - in liking Modern Painters, and the idea of the Seven Lamps'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
'I am very happy nevertheless making flannel petticoats; and reading Modern painters'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
'She [Gaskell's daughter 'Meta' or Margaret Emily] is [italics] quite [end italics] able to appreciate any book I am reading. Ruskin's Seven Lamps of Architecture for the last instance'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret Emily Gaskell Print: Book
'She [Gaskell's daughter 'Meta' or Margaret Emily] is [italics] quite [end italics] able to appreciate any book I am reading. Ruskin's Seven Lamps of Architecture for the last instance'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
'I suspect that Meta has taken up either the 5th vol. of Modern Painters, or Tyndall on Glaciers, both of which books she is reading now, and Florence is probably reading the 'Amber-Witch'.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret Emily Gaskell Print: Book
'I am very much obliged to you indeed for so kindly and so speedily sending me the books I asked for, and which gave great delight to my daughter, when they arrived yesterday morning. I beg to enclose a Post Office Order for the amount.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret Emily ('Meta') Gaskell Print: Book
Passages transcribed into E. M. Forster, Commonplace Book (1938) include Ruskin's remarks on Claude and the Poussins as 'weak men' with 'no serious influence on the general mind.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book
Passages transcribed in E. M. Forster's Commonplace Book (1942) include Ruskin's remark, from a Slade Lecture (with five commas omitted from original): 'Every mutiny every danger every terror and every crime occurring under or paralysing our Indian legislation, arises directly out of our national desire to live out of the loot of India.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book
Passages in E. M. Forster's Commonplace Book (1945) include extracts (on transience of pleasure in nature) from Ruskin's introduction to his notes on Turner drawings owned by him, and exhibited in 1878 at the Fine Art Society's London galleries.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book
'He [George Gissing] recommended [in letters to his siblings] books like Morris's "Earthly Paradise", a poem "abounding in the quaintest archaisms"; Ruskin's "Unto this last", which Gissing liked as a "contribution to - or rather onslaught upon - Political Economy"; Landor's "Imaginary Conversations", for its "perfect prose"; and Scott's "Redgauntlet", for the romantic situations of which he must "try to find parallel kinds in modern life". Gissing kept up the habit throughout his life: he was always reading and always recommending books to his friends and family. In the early 1880s he read a lot of German, and to his brother, Algernon, particularly recommended Eckerman's "Conversations with Goethe", "a most delightful book". Meanwhile his sister, Margaret, was reading Schiller under his direction'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gissing Print: Book
'[Discussion of Ruskin] was followed by a reading by Mrs Ridges from "The Crown of Wild Olive". Mrs Stansfield read a paper on Ruskin's Economics principally with reference to "Unto this Last".' [the lengthy discussion that ensued is given in the MS]
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Blanche Ridges Print: Book
'[Discussion of Ruskin] was followed by a reading by Mrs Ridges from "The Crown of Wild Olive". Mrs Stansfield read a paper on Ruskin's Economics principally with reference to "Unto this Last".' [the lengthy discussion that ensued is given in the MS]
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Stansfield Print: Book
'After a period of refreshment A. Rawlings then read a paper on Ruskin as an art critic, in which he gratuituously attacked the literary style of Modern Painters with which the paper chiefly dealt. The style was condemned as quite unsuited to the subject by reason of its verbosity its looseness of expression & inexact terminology. This view met with strong dissent. Extracts were then read from Modern Painters showing the argument of the work which was criticised later'. [the critique is summarised]
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Rawlings Print: Book
'After a period of refreshment A. Rawlings then read a paper on Ruskin as an art critic, in which he gratuituously attacked the literary style of Modern Painters with which the paper chiefly dealt. The style was condemned as quite unsuited to the subject by reason of its verbosity its looseness of expression & inexact terminology. This view met with strong dissent. Extracts were then read from Modern Painters showing the argument of the work which was criticised later'. [the critique is summarised]
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: XII Book Club Print: Book
'Looking back to my Father's diary - of which I have just 40 pages, which I shall page forthwith (and then dates of painters!) - I open it at 39. i. about Bp Bossuet's work; and intending to read Ezek. XXXIX again, read XXXVI instead.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Manuscript: Codex
'Read my Father's note of flowers at Chartreuse. 21.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Manuscript: Codex
'Read my Father's note on St George. p. 26'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Manuscript: Codex
'I looked for this old diary and read by chance the entry on my birthday, 1873, with my father's "Apocrypha" to refer to, which I had chanced to put forward on my first shelf last night'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Manuscript: Codex
'Read diary of spring 1873 - what a change!'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Manuscript: Codex
'Read entry in this journal for 8th and 9th September!'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Manuscript: Codex
'Read again the lines p. 45 of last diary (Palmero book)'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Manuscript: Codex
'Read, by chance, looking for Botany, the entry of 12th June last year - the trials of the just and scourges of the Sinner! I seem to catch both, just now.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Manuscript: Codex
'Greatly relieved in mind by resolving to stay, and reading former diary'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Manuscript: Codex
'read, this morning, pp. 15 to 18 of Broadlands book with great comfort.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Manuscript: Codex
'Yesterday was a culmination of all mischief, finding I had lost (temporarily, may the Fates and Fors'es grant) Sir Walter Scott's Pen! Comforted a little by reading my own notes above on Sisyphus.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Manuscript: Codex
'Read this morning my entries early in 1877.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Manuscript: Codex
'This morning I have great pleasure in reading "Deucalion" before coffee'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book
'Greatly rooted in displeasure with myself as I look over old diaries.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Manuscript: Codex
'I recalled Ruskin's words in the Preface to "Sesame and Lilies": "Let heart-sickness pass beyond a certain point and the heart loses its life for ever."'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Vera Brittain Print: Book
Charlotte Bronte to her publisher, W. S. Williams, 31 July 1848:
'I have lately been reading "Modern Painters," and have derived from the work much genuine pleasure and, I hope, some edification; at any rate, it made me feel how ignorant I had previously been on the subject which it treats. Hitherto I have only had instinct to guide me in judging of art; I feel more as if I had been walking blindfold — this book seems to give me eyes [...] I like this author's style much: there is both energy and beauty in it; I like himself, too, because he is such a hearty admirer. He does not give Turner half-measure of praise or veneration, he eulogises, he reverences him (or rather his genius) with his whole soul. One can sympathise with that sort of devout, serious admiration (for he is no rhapsodist) — one can respect it; and yet possibly many people would laugh at it. I am truly obliged to Mr Smith [Williams's publishing partner] for giving me this book, not having often met with one that has pleased me more.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Brontë Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell to Tottie Fox, August 1850:
'I wish, my dear, you were here. It would be a charming beguiling of my sofa imprisonment. I am very happy nevertheless making flannel petticoats and reading "Modern Painters."'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gaskell Print: Book
Charlotte Bronte to George Smith, 7 January 1851:
'"The King of the Golden River" is a divine fairy tale. Richard Doyle has done it scant justice in
his illustrations (which are rather obscurations) but it does not much matter; Mr Ruskin paints so
exquisitely with his pen as to be almost independent of the designer's pencil.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Brontë Print: Book
Charlotte Bronte to George Smith, 7 January 1851:
'The "Stones of Venice" seem nobly laid and chiselled. How grandly the "Quarry" of vast
marbles is disclosed! Mr Ruskin seems to me one of the few genuine writers (as distinguished
from book-makers) of this age. His earnestness even amuses me in certain passages; for I
cannot help laughing to think how utilitarians will fume and fret over his deep, serious, and
(as they will think), fanatical reverence for Art. That pure and severe mind
you ascribed to him speaks in every line. He writes like a consecrated Priest of the Abstract
and Ideal.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Brontë Print: Book
Charlotte Bronte to George Smith, 8 March 1851:
'Papa was much pleased with Mr Ruskin's Pamphlet, only he thought the scheme of
amalgamation suggested towards the close — impracticable. For my part I regard the brochure
as a refreshing piece of honest writing, good sense uttered by pure lips. The Puseyite
priesthood will not relish it; it strips them mercilessly of their pompous pretensions.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Brontë
Charlotte Bronte to George Smith, 8 March 1851:
'Papa was much pleased with Mr Ruskin's Pamphlet, only he thought the scheme of
amalgamation suggested towards the close — impracticable. For my part I regard the brochure
as a refreshing piece of honest writing, good sense uttered by pure lips. The Puseyite
priesthood will not relish it; it strips them mercilessly of their pompous pretensions.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Patrick Brontë
Charlotte Bronte to George Smith, 14 July 1853:
'Mr Ruskin's beautiful book reached me safely this morning; its arrival was a pleasant
surprise, for I was far from expecting to see it so soon after publication. Of course I have not
yet read it, but a mere glance over the pages suffices to excite anticipation and to give a
foretaste of excellence.
'Acknowledgment is also due for the great pleasure I derived from reading Dr Forbes's
"Memorandum" (sent in the last Cornhill parcel [from Smith and partners, Bronte's
publishers]). Without according with every opinion broached, or accepting as infallible every
inference drawn or every conclusion arrived at, one cannot but like the book and sincerely
respect the author on account of the good sense, good feeling, good nature, and good humour
everywhere obvious in his "Memorandum."'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Brontë Print: Book
'Strong breeze and weather agreeable so far from Karachi. Green's "History", Macaulay, Ruskin, "Oxford Book [?of English Verse]" and Horace every day.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ronald Storrs Print: Book
'Meeting held at Gower Cottage, 28th May 1945
Elsie D. Harrod in the chair.
[...]
4. The subject of the evening was John Ruskin, and Faith Miller gave us a most
comprehensive and absorbingly interesting account of his life, his writings and his
ideals. So complete was this survey, of a man who wrote so much & lived such a
long and full life, that your secretary finds it difficult, in writing this minute, to
maintain her reputation for being brief and to the point! But suffice it to say that
Faith Miller’s discourse drew forth one of those spontaneous burst of applause only
accorded on rare occasions for contributions of outstanding worth.
5. Cyril Langford then read a passage from “On the Nature of Gothic” setting forth
Ruskin’s principle that the working creature is either a man or a tool – he cannot
be both. He followed this with part of a modern commentary on Ruskin by R. H
Wilenski which stated quite simply that Ruskin could not write because his mind
had been drugged from birth onward by the emotive language of the Bible. This
heterodox statement aroused strong opposition but it also had some support and a
lively argument ensued, and indeed it seemed that Diplomatic relations between
members were in danger of being broken off, when came in a timely invitation to
supper from our hostess and we were united once more in our appreciation of the
excellent refreshments provided.
6. Muriel Stevens then revealed to us Ruskin’s theories on Art & Artists & we hope
she did not feel discouraged by the fact that members were apparently far more
interested in the reproductions she passed round than in what Ruskin had to say
about them. She also read from Picasso on “Cubism”, but this was a realm into
which few, if any of us, could follow her.
7. Bruce Dilks then spoke of Ruskin’s ideas on political economy & social reform.
We heard how he advocated a system of national education and attacked a state
whose system of economics was based solely on the acquisition of wealth.
8. Finally Francis Pollard read a passage from “Sesame and Lilies”, skilfully
selected to prove once & for all that Ruskin could write & that in a clear,
forceful manner readily understood by anyone of even average intellect.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Cyril Langford Print: Book
'Meeting held at Gower Cottage, 28th May 1945
Elsie D. Harrod in the chair.
[...]
4. The subject of the evening was John Ruskin, and Faith Miller gave us a most
comprehensive and absorbingly interesting account of his life, his writings and his
ideals. So complete was this survey, of a man who wrote so much & lived such a
long and full life, that your secretary finds it difficult, in writing this minute, to
maintain her reputation for being brief and to the point! But suffice it to say that
Faith Miller’s discourse drew forth one of those spontaneous burst of applause only
accorded on rare occasions for contributions of outstanding worth.
5. Cyril Langford then read a passage from “On the Nature of Gothic” setting forth
Ruskin’s principle that the working creature is either a man or a tool – he cannot
be both. He followed this with part of a modern commentary on Ruskin by R. H
Wilenski which stated quite simply that Ruskin could not write because his mind
had been drugged from birth onward by the emotive language of the Bible. This
heterodox statement aroused strong opposition but it also had some support and a
lively argument ensued, and indeed it seemed that Diplomatic relations between
members were in danger of being broken off, when came in a timely invitation to
supper from our hostess and we were united once more in our appreciation of the
excellent refreshments provided.
6. Muriel Stevens then revealed to us Ruskin’s theories on Art & Artists & we hope
she did not feel discouraged by the fact that members were apparently far more
interested in the reproductions she passed round than in what Ruskin had to say
about them. She also read from Picasso on “Cubism”, but this was a realm into
which few, if any of us, could follow her.
7. Bruce Dilks then spoke of Ruskin’s ideas on political economy & social reform.
We heard how he advocated a system of national education and attacked a state
whose system of economics was based solely on the acquisition of wealth.
8. Finally Francis Pollard read a passage from “Sesame and Lilies”, skilfully
selected to prove once & for all that Ruskin could write & that in a clear,
forceful manner readily understood by anyone of even average intellect.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Francis E. Pollard Print: Book
'In the morning to Santa Maria where we looked at the Spanish Chapel with Ruskin.[...] In the afternoon poked about in the back streets behind the Duomo which are all full of palaces and where the little square with the old tower Dante's church and doorway is wonderfully thrilling. Tea at the Cascine. Read Dante when we came in.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Bell Print: Book
'Then to the Scuola of St Rocco where, with the help of the good old Ruskin, I got near to Tintoret[to].'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Bell Print: Book
'Do you read Ruskin at all? I am sure you don't. Well I am reading a book of his at present called
"A joy for ever", which is charming, though I am not sure you would care for it.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Clive Staples Lewis Print: Book
'At St. Servan I became extravagant and purchased myself a
birthday present for 4 francs. Ruskin's 'Stones of Venice'. I
had no prose reading with me, and one can have too much
Spenser. The new acquisition seems most interesting
architecturally, I expect father will like it.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Edward Lawrence Print: Book
'Scroggs came back from Pontorson by train, but I rode,
[bicycle] and thereby saved 3 francs 50 cent. Another 50 cent.
and I will have paid for my Ruskins. I like his style and subject
intensely; his is most interesting. I am exceedingly glad I
bought them for I now have some conception of the right way
in which to study architecture, and how to draw the truest
lessons from it. Father will be entranced with it.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Edward Lawrence Print: Book
'Next morning. My Ruskin is better than ever. I will have him
bound in Oxford, or will bind him myself. It gives a most
masterly exposition of the meaning and method of Gothic, and
he simply smashes the Renaissance styles. No wonder they
are going out of fashion after this book. Father will devour it
with avidity, and start for Venice next week'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Edward Lawrence Print: Book
