Late Ruskin: New Contexts

This title was first published in 2001. Ruskin said that 1860 marked the beginning of his 'proper work'. This study presents new, historicized readings of important texts and themes from that late period, 1860-1889, discussing in detail works including Unto this Last (1860), the Lectures on Art (1870), Fors Clavigera (1871-1884), and The Bible of Amiens (1880-85), and considering key themes such as Ruskin's politicized regard for Pre-Raphaelitism in the 1870s, and the complex topic of Ruskin and manliness. Claiming new and distinctive importance for this period of Ruskin's work, both in terms of Ruskin's development as a writer and his place in Victorian culture as it moved toward modernity, this book is the first solely devoted to the prolific later years, and draws on much unpublished material.

Francis O'Gorman

Contents: Introduction; 'An entirely honest merchant': the domestic context of Unto this Last (1860); 'What I might myself have been': Sesame and Lilies (1865) and the occasion of autobiography; 'The beginning of art is in getting our country clean': the Inaugural Lectures on Art (1870); 'Do good work whether you live or die': Fors Clavigera, usefulness, and the crisis of the Commune; 'Decent, trim, as human dwellings should be': Ruskin and the Pre-Raphaelite imagination of the 1870s; 'Just the thing for girls - sketching, fine art and so on': Ruskin and manliness, 1870-1920; 'Oh fast whirling reader': The Bible of Amiens (1880-85), tolerance, and autobiography; Bibliography of works cited; Index.