The Storm-cloud of the nineteenth century

by John Ruskin, Peter Brimblecombe (Introduction), Clive Wilmer (Foreword)

Dismissed by Ruskin’s contemporaries as the ravings of a deluded enemy of modernity, The Storm Cloud of the Nineteenth Century is an eerily prescient denunciation of capitalism’s assault on the atmosphere – and the profound danger that this represents not only for the health of the earth, but for the spiritual well-being of humanity. It is one of Ruskin’s final writings, conducted with both rigorous scientific observation and a sense of Biblical prophecy. This call to action is even more urgently needed today. Ruskin has a claim to be recognised as one of the founding spirits of the environmental movement, although his insistence on the keeping sight of the social value and morality of man’s relationship with nature has still not been fully absorbed. His great rallying cry, There is no Wealth but Life, is implicit throughout the Storm Cloud. How his thought developed through a hugely conflicted relationship with the professional science of his day, and what we should take from his writings, are examined by Peter Brimblecombe, Professor of Atmospheric Pollution at the University of Essex, in his Introduction. A foreword by the Master of the Guild of St George, Ruskin’s association for social and spiritual reform, sets out what Ruskinians today can do and are doing.

Genres: Nonfiction

94 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1884

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

John Ruskin was an English writer, philosopher, art historian, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and political economy.
Ruskin was heavily engaged by the work of Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc which he taught to all his pupils including William Morris, notably Viollet-le-Duc's Dictionary, which he considered as "the only book of any value on architecture". Ruskin's writing styles and literary forms were equally varied. He wrote essays and treatises, poetry and lectures, travel guides and manuals, letters and even a fairy tale. He also made detailed sketches and paintings of rocks, plants, birds, landscapes, architectural structures and ornamentation. The elaborate style that characterised his earliest writing on art gave way in time to plainer language designed to communicate his ideas more effectively. In all of his writing, he emphasised the connections between nature, art and society.
Ruskin was hugely influential in the latter half of the 19th century and up to the First World War. After a period of relative decline, his reputation has steadily improved since the 1960s with the publication of numerous academic studies of his work. Today, his ideas and concerns are widely recognised as having anticipated interest in environmentalism, sustainability and craft.
Ruskin first came to widespread attention with the first volume of Modern Painters (1843), an extended essay in defence of the work of J.M.W. Turner in which he argued that the principal role of the artist is "truth to nature". From the 1850s, he championed the Pre-Raphaelites, who were influenced by his ideas. His work increasingly focused on social and political issues. Unto This Last (1860, 1862) marked the shift in emphasis. In 1869, Ruskin became the first Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Oxford, where he established the Ruskin School of Drawing. In 1871, he began his monthly "letters to the workmen and labourers of Great Britain", published under the title Fors Clavigera (1871–1884). In the course of this complex and deeply personal work, he developed the principles underlying his ideal society. As a result, he founded the Guild of St George, an organisation that endures today.

Reviews

[Lorraine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think it's fascinating that Ruskin was able to identify meterological changes that we now know were directly caused by the Industrial Revolution although he was roundly derided in the press and disbelieved at the time. What astonishes me most is the degree to which he acutely observes the world around him: detailed observations of colors and shapes and textures. I am so profoundly unobservant, and that way of moving through the world seems delightfully alien to me.

[Jamilla Smith-Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review to come later in the week.