Stories of Books That Live And the Men Who Wrote Them

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18579, 29 September 1928, Page 19 (Supplement)

Stories of Books That Live And the Men Who Wrote Them

Charles Conway

By

JOHN RUSKIN’S PROSE.

AS a writer of magnificent prose John Ruskin has no superior in the annals of English literature, and in thi five volumes of his famous work, “ Modern Painters,” are to be found some of the most wonderful passages of his poetical prose, which as a poetical style stands unrivalled, although curiously enough his actual poetry- possesses no great literary merit. As a child Ruskin accompanied his father, who was a wine merchant and an enthusiastic student of art and literature, on his business journeys, during which visits were made to many < f the principal picture gallerle ; in C eat Britain and on the continent o.

Europe, and thus at an early age h<became the possessor of a varied ana unique knowledge of ancient and modern art.

At the age of ei&ht Ruskin commenced to write both prose and verse, but it was not until seven years later that any of his work appeared in print, and his first publication was a short story and some poems. In 1836, when he was seventeen y-ears of age, he wrote a powerful article in reply to the savage attacks which were then being made by- the art critics of the day against Turner’s paintings. This article was not published, but was sent by Ruskin’s father to the great artist. In 1842 Ruskin commenced the first volume of “Modern Painters,” which was published in the following year. The work was originally undertaken as a vindication of Turner against the attacks of the critics, and to prove t.he artist’s superiority- as a landscape painter over all tie old piasters, but it soon developed into an elaborate treatise on che general principles of painting. The arnestness and originality of the writer and the splendour ot his style made the book an immediate and lasting success, but it was the second volume, which was published in 1846 and which reviewed the works of the old

masters, that established Ruskin’s reputation as the greatest of art writers and critics. This work was illustrated by a series of etchings executed by Ruskin himself, which showed him to be one of the best and most accurate draughtsmen of his day.

Three years later he published “The Seven Lamps of Architecture,” the most popular and widely read of his works, in which he set out to show that all good architecture was the outward expression of “certain right states of temper and moral feeling” and made a brilliant attempt to effect reform in domestic and church architecture. The seven lamps referred to in the title represent the characteristics, which, according to Ruskin, all good architecture should possess, and the lamps are respectively those of Sacrifice, Truth. Life, Power, Beauty, Memory and Obedience. In 1851, when Ruskin became the champion of the pre-Raphaelite work of Millais and Holman Hunt, he published another great architectural work —“The Stones of Venice,” and nine years later he published the fifth and last volume of “Modern Painters.” He then turned his attention to the study of social and industrial problems, writing a number of books on the subject, and his influence was responsible for the founding of university settlements -n various parts of the Motherland. On the death of his father in 1864 Ruskin inherited a fortune of nearly £200,000. and he expended the whole of the money in charitable, social and educational objects. In 1871 he commenced

his memorable labours as a practical reformer, and by the publication of a series of miscellaneous notes and essays under the title of “Fors Clavigera” (“Chance the Club-Bearer”) he endeavoured to alleviate the hardships of the lower classes. Ruskin died in 1900 at the age of eighty-one, and was laid to rest at Comston, in the Lake District, which had been his home for many years. SOUTHEY’S “ LIFE OF NELSON.” Few authors have written so much and so well and attained so little enduring popularity as Robert Southey, who was one of the most prolific of British writers. In his lifetime he was famous as a poet, scholar, critic, antiquary, historian and miscellaneous writer, and he is said to have burned more verses between his twentieth and thirtieth years than he published in his whole life.

He preceded Wordsworth as PoetLaureate, and his poems are still appreciated by poetical students and critical readers, but to each succeeding generation since -his death his verses have grown less and less to the taste of th« 3 general public. This is mainly due to the fact that Southey in his poems truthfully reflected the feeling of his