John Ruskin was the most powerful and influential art critic and social commentator of the Victorian nineteenth century. A true polymath, he wrote about nature, art, architecture, politics, history, myth and much more. All of his work is characterized by a clarity of vision as unsettling and intense now as it was for his first readers.This new selection includes wide-ranging extracts of Ruskin's texts, from the early 1840s to the late 1880s, as well as representative material from each of his major works. Modern Painters, The Stones of Venice, and Sesame and Lilies are juxtaposed with less familiar writing on science and myth. An authoritative introduction outlines Ruskin's life and thought, making it clear why his writing is still relevant today. This new edition also includes a selection of Ruskin's own illustrations.