John Ruskins insights into the need for individual artistic freedom, and his disdain for the mass-production art of the Victorian era, radically altered society's perception of creative design and remain powerfully relevant to our ideas of beauty today.

Ruskin's The Elements of Drawing, first published in 1857, remains one of the most sensible and useful books on how to draw and paint, both for the amateur and the professional artist.

'To be taught to write or to speak - but what is the use of speaking, if you have nothing to say? To be taught to think - nay, what is the use of being able to think, if you have nothing to think of? But to be taught to see is to gain word and thought at once, and both true.' Ruskin was the most powerful and influential critic of the nineteenth century. He wrote about nature, art, architecture,

John Ruskin wrote more than half a million words on Venice. This is an abridged version of his opus, which still contains the essence of his original work, for those who would appreciate Venice, architecture and Ruskin's fine writing.

The whole difference between a man of genius and other men... is that the first remains in great part a child, seeing with the large eyes of children, in perpetual wonder, not conscious of much knowledge, - conscious, rather, of infinite ignorance.

States that ancient buildings must be conserved for their deep, mystical links with the past and that creative design is essential - not for financial gain, but to communicate eternal human truths. This title brings the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.

Shows the range and depth of Ruskin's work, and 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. This volume also shows that his work Unto this Last is also a closely argued assault on the science of political economy.