John Ruskin

author

John Ruskin

1819–1900

A brilliant Victorian critic who wrote about art, architecture, nature, and society with unusual passion and clarity. His books helped shape the way generations of readers looked at beauty, work, and the moral meaning of everyday life.

62 Audiobooks

The Ethics of the Dust

The Ethics of the Dust

by John Ruskin

Sesame and Lilies

Sesame and Lilies

by John Ruskin

Mornings in Florence

Mornings in Florence

by John Ruskin

The Two Paths

The Two Paths

by John Ruskin

Mons Spes, et novellæ aliæ

Mons Spes, et novellæ aliæ

by E. Parmalee (Ezra Parmalee) Prentice, Baron Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton, Guy de Maupassant, John Ruskin, Robert Louis Stevenson

Of Vulgarity

Of Vulgarity

by John Ruskin

Kuninkaitten aarteet

Kuninkaitten aarteet

by John Ruskin

La Bible d'Amiens

La Bible d'Amiens

by John Ruskin

Keskinäinen ihmisyys

Keskinäinen ihmisyys

by John Ruskin

About the author

Born in London in 1819, John Ruskin became one of the most influential English writers of the Victorian age. He is best known as an art and architecture critic, but his interests ranged far beyond galleries and buildings: he also wrote about landscape, craftsmanship, education, economics, and social justice.

Ruskin first won wide attention with Modern Painters, a major defense of J. M. W. Turner and a bold argument that great art depends on truthful observation of nature. He later published other landmark works, including The Seven Lamps of Architecture and The Stones of Venice, which connected style, labor, and moral values in ways that deeply influenced artists, designers, and reformers.

He was also a gifted draughtsman and a powerful public voice whose ideas reached into the Arts and Crafts movement and beyond. In his later years he lived at Brantwood in England’s Lake District, where he continued to write and think about art, beauty, and the responsibilities people owe one another; he died in 1900.