This original and accessible study of John Ruskin's writings traces the evolution of his understanding and use of mythology. Though he evinced a Christian distrust of mythology in his early work, Ruskin came to revere and use it, finding in its multiple significance ways of articulating both private obsession and public debate. He insisted that historical scholarship could never completely uncover the meaning of myth, that it was essentially a religious phenomenon founded on an ancient understanding of the natural world. Through close readings of a wide range of Ruskin's writings--autobiography, art history, politics, and science--Birch reveals how deeply all of his work and thought are pervaded by this imaginative engagement with mythology.