John Ruskin (8 February 1819 – 20 January 1900) was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture, myth to ornithology, literature to education, and botany to political economy. His writing styles and literary forms were equally varied. Ruskin penned essays and treatises, poetry and lectures, travel guides and manuals, letters and even a fairy tale. The elaborate style that characterized his earliest writing on art was later superseded by a preference for plainer language designed to communicate his ideas more effectively. In all of his writing, he emphasized the connections between nature, art and society. He also made detailed sketches and paintings of rocks, plants, birds, landscapes, and architectural structures and ornamentation.

Lectures on Landscape
Read by Hugh McGuire, Kirsten Ferreri and Duncan Murrell
Running Time:1:45:55 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Art, Design & Architecture

A series of lectures on landscape painting delivered at Oxford in 1871, by artist, critic, and social commentator, John Ruskin.
01 Lecture I: Outline    
02 Lecture II: Light and Shade    
03 Lecture III: Color    

Sesame and Lilies
Read by Oxenhandler
Running Time:05:13:13 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Non-fiction, Self-Help

Sesame and Lilies proposes and answers the questions, how, what and why to read in the context of how and why to live.

About earlier and later editions of the book containing the first two lectures alone, Ruskin wrote: "...chiefly written for young people belonging to the upper or undistressed, middle classes; who may be supposed to have choice of the objects and command of the industries of their life... if read in connection with “Unto This Last” it contains the chief truths I have endeavored through all of my past life to display… and am chiefly thankful to have learned and taught.” - Avallon, August 24, 1882*

This revised and enlarged edition is comprised of two prefaces and three lectures. The Preface-Last Edition is the preface to the earlier edition and references the Alps. The two lectures, “Of Kings’ Treasuries” and “Of Queens' Gardens,” appeared alone in the first editions and last editions. They were withdrawn from later editions, "not as irrelevant but as following the subject too far, and disturbing the simplicity in which the original lectures dwell on their several themes, -the majesty of the influence of good books, and of good women; if we know how to read them and how to honour."*

The lectures, Sesame: Of Kings' Treasuries and Lilies: Of Queens' Gardens were delivered in December 1864 at the town halls at Rusholme and Manchester. The third lecture, "Of the Mystery of Life and Its Arts" was delivered in the theater of the Royal College of Science, Dublin, 1868 and added to the book in editions first appearing in 1871.

The King of the Golden River
Read by Xenutia
Running Time:1:14:44 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Myths, Legends & Fairy Tales

When three brothers mortally offend Mr. Southwest Wind, Esquire, their farm is laid waste and their riches lost. Desperate for money, the brothers become goldsmiths and melt down their remaining treasures . . . only to find that the spirit of the King of the Golden River resides with a molded tankard, and knows the secret of the riches of the Golden River.

The Seven Lamps of Architecture
Read by Todd Ulbrich
Running Time:8:58:47 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Art, Design & Architecture

The Seven Lamps of Architecture, published in May 1849, is an extended essay written by the English art critic and theorist John Ruskin. The 'lamps' of the title are Ruskin's principles of architecture, which he later enlarged upon in the three-volume The Stones of Venice. To an extent, they codified some of the contemporary thinking behind the Gothic Revival. At the time of its publication A.W.N. Pugin and others had already advanced the ideas of the Revival and it was well under way in practice. Ruskin offered little new to the debate, but the book helped to capture and summarize the thoughts of the movement. The Seven Lamps also proved a great popular success, and received the approval of the ecclesiologists typified by the Cambridge Camden Society, who criticized in their publication The Ecclesiologist lapses committed by modern architects in ecclesiastical commissions.

The Stones of Venice

The Stones of Venice is a three-volume treatise on Venetian art and architecture by English art historian John Ruskin, first published from 1851 to 1853. Intending to prove how the architecture in Venice exemplified the principles he discussed in his earlier work, The Seven Lamps of Architecture, Ruskin examined the city in detail, describing for example over eighty churches. He discusses architecture of Venice's Byzantine, Gothic and Renaissance periods, and provides a general history of the city as well. The book aroused considerable interest in Victorian Britain and beyond. The chapter "The Nature of Gothic" (from volume 2) was admired by William Morris, who published it separately in an edition which is in itself an example of Gothic revival. It inspired Marcel Proust; the narrator of the Recherche visits Venice with his mother in a state of enthusiasm for Ruskin. The Stones of Venice is considered one of the most influential books of the 19th century.

The Stones of Venice, Volume 1
Read by Multiple Readers
Running Time:14:12:54 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Art, Design & Architecture, Travel & Geography

00 - Preface
01 - Chapter 01, The Quarry, part 1
02 - Chapter 01, The Quarry, part 2
03 - Chapter 01, The Quarry, part 3
04 - Chapter 02, The Virtues of Architecture
05 - Chapter 03, The Six Divisions of Architecture
06 - Chapter 04, The Wall Base
07 - Chapter 05, The Wall Veil
08 - Chapter 06, The Wall Cornice
09 - Chapter 07, The Pier Base
10 - Chapter 08, The Shaft
11 - Chapter 09, The Capital
12 - Chapter 10, The Arch Line
13 - Chapter 11, The Arch Masonry
14 - Chapter 12, The Arch Load
15 - Chapter 13, The Roof
16 - Chapter 14, The Roof Cornice
17 - Chapter 15, The Buttress
18 - Chapter 16, Form of Aperture
19 - Chapter 17, Filling of Aperture
20 - Chapter 18, Protection of Aperture
21 - Chapter 19, Superimposition
22 - Chapter 20, The Material of Ornament, part 1
23 - Chapter 20, The Material of Ornament, part 2
24 - Chapter 21, Treatment of Ornament, part 1
25 - Chapter 21, Treatment of Ornament, part 2
26 - Chapter 22, The Angle
27 - Chapter 23, The Edge and Fillet
28 - Chapter 24, The Roll and Recess
29 - Chapter 25, The Base
30 - Chapter 26, The Wall Veil and Shaft
31 - Chapter 27, The Cornice and Capital, part 1
32 - Chapter 27, The Cornice and Capital, part 2
33 - Chapter 28, The Archivolt and Aperture
34 - Chapter 29, The Roof
35 - Chapter 30, The Vestibule

The Stones of Venice, Volume 2
Read by Multiple Readers
Running Time:14:37:37 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Art, Design & Architecture, Travel & Geography

01 - Chapter 01, The Throne
02 - Chapter 02, Torcello
03 - Chapter 03, Murano, part 1
04 - Chapter 03, Murano, part 2
05 - Chapter 04, Saint Mark's, part 1
06 - Chapter 04, Saint Mark's, part 2
07 - Chapter 04, Saint Mark's, part 3
08 - Chapter 04, Saint Mark's, part 4
09 - Chapter 04, Saint Mark's, part 5
10 - Chapter 05, Byzantine Palaces, part 1
11 - Chapter 05, Byzantine Palaces, part 2
12 - Chapter 06, The Nature of Gothic, part 1
13 - Chapter 06, The Nature of Gothic, part 2
14 - Chapter 06, The Nature of Gothic, part 3
15 - Chapter 06, The Nature of Gothic, part 4
16 - Chapter 06, The Nature of Gothic, part 5
17 - Chapter 06, The Nature of Gothic, part 6
18 - Chapter 07, Gothic Palaces, part 1
19 - Chapter 07, Gothic Palaces, part 2
20 - Chapter 07, Gothic Palaces, part 3
21 - Chapter 08, The Ducal Palace, part 1
22 - Chapter 08, The Ducal Palace, part 2
23 - Chapter 08, The Ducal Palace, part 3
24 - Chapter 08, The Ducal Palace, part 4
25 - Chapter 08, The Ducal Palace, part 5
26 - Chapter 08, The Ducal Palace, part 6

The Stones of Venice, Volume 3
Read by Multiple Readers
Running Time:08:04:47 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Art, Design & Architecture, Travel & Geography

01 - Chapter 01, Early Renaissance, part 1
02 - Chapter 01, Early Renaissance, part 2
03 - Chapter 01, Early Renaissance, part 3
04 - Chapter 02, Roman Renaissance, part 1
05 - Chapter 02, Roman Renaissance, part 2
06 - Chapter 02, Roman Renaissance, part 3
07 - Chapter 02, Roman Renaissance, part 4
08 - Chapter 02, Roman Renaissance, part 5
09 - Chapter 02, Roman Renaissance, part 6
10 - Chapter 03, Grotesque Renaissance, part 1
11 - Chapter 03, Grotesque Renaissance, part 2
12 - Chapter 03, Grotesque Renaissance, part 3
13 - Chapter 03, Grotesque Renaissance, part 4
14 - Conclusion, part 1
15 - Conclusion, part 2
16 - Conclusion, part 3

The Two Paths
Read by Michael Packard, Christopher Russell, Todd Ulbrich and Mary Schneider
Running Time:6:01:44 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Art, Design & Architecture

"The Two Paths" is a collection of five lectures delivered in 1858 and 1859 by John Ruskin on art and architecture. This is how the author himself presents the book: "The following addresses, though spoken at different times, are intentionally connected in subject; their aim being to set one or two main principles of art in simple light before the general student, and to indicate their practical bearing on modern design. The law which it has been my effort chiefly to illustrate is the dependence of all noble design, in any kind, on the sculpture or painting of Organic Form." The most famous of these, the fifth lecture, is commonly known simply as "The Work of Iron"

Unto this Last: Four Essays on the First Principles of Political Economy
Read by Hugh McGuire, Carl Manchester,Gesine and Sibella Denton
Running Time:3:16:03 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Political Science

John Ruskin (1819 – 1900) is best known for his work as an art critic and social critic, but is remembered as an author, poet and artist as well. Unto This Last is an important work of political economic though that influenced Gandhi, among others.