William Morris on Art and Socialism

by William Morris, Norman Kelvin (Editor)

For the Victorian sage William Morris, the subjects of art and society were inseparable. This outstanding collection of 11 lectures and an essay illustrates Morris’s convictions. " A Serious Thing," "Useful Work vs. Useless Toil," "The Dawn of a New Epoch," and "The Present Outlook of Socialism." Introduction. Biographical Note.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Art, Design, Society

208 pages, Paperback

First published August 9, 1999

About the author

William Morris was an English architect, furniture and textile designer, artist, writer, socialist and Marxist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement. Morris wrote and published poetry, fiction, and translations of ancient and medieval texts throughout his life. His best-known works include The Defence of Guenevere and Other Poems (1858), The Earthly Paradise (1868–1870), A Dream of John Ball and the utopian News from Nowhere. He was an important figure in the emergence of socialism in Britain, founding the Socialist League in 1884, but breaking with the movement over goals and methods by the end of that decade. He devoted much of the rest of his life to the Kelmscott Press, which he founded in 1891. The 1896 Kelmscott edition of the Works of Geoffrey Chaucer is considered a masterpiece of book design.

Reviews

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the selections here were essays and some were speeches but overall I preferred the direct non-fiction approach to what Morris was wanting to explain with his view on socialism. What I found most interesting was how so many of the problems he was describing are the problems we still haven't come any closer to fixing, globalisation, cheap labour, war for economic gains. It is also always refreshing to read Victorian writers complain about the problems of the "Modern" world. While I thought a couple of the essays a little dull, overall I really enjoyed his style and insight. I think I would have been very happy living in his communist society. I liked the (impossibly) idealistic world he created, but I also liked it when he'd let his pessimism show through. I think my favourite paragraph of all was when he was saying how his study of history and art had led him to a hatred of civilisation. I could identify with that so much. All told very interesting and definitely recommended. It made me even more proud of my tattoo, so much more than simply a guy who designed wall paper for posh people...

[Matthew · Rating 1 out of 5]

William Morris lacked the talent to turn a phrase in such a way that I would be impressed upon reading it a century later. even so I am interested in a radical understanding of artisanship as well as art. I think we will see a resurgence in the former in the next decade or so. Which is not to say we haven't seen this already. Yeah so this book is kind of sitting on the transmission on my literary jaunt through the Holland Tunnel in midsummer but I promise once I finish either Freud or the Dover chemistry history book I'll resume.

[Eris Garza · Rating 2 out of 5]

La baja puntuación se debe a la poca utilidad para mí del texto, ya que el socialismo utópico en que se movía Morris y la falta del entendimiento del arte y el trabajo de manera marxista, hacen que haya sido ampliamente superado por otras obras.
Aun así, interesante de leer.