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The Lamp of Memory
John Ruskin overturned Victorian society’s ideas about art and architecture, arguing that ancient buildings must be conserved for their deep, mystical links with the past and that creative design is essential – not for financial gain, but to communicate eternal human truths.
Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves – and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives – and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.
Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves – and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives – and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.
144 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1849
33 people are currently reading
509 people want to read
About the author
John Ruskin
3,772 books480 followersLibrarian 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
February 27, 2024
The premier English art critic of the Victorian era gets invited to art school graduations and lords of industry meetings for an uplifting message—and then sticks in the knife and slowly turns it—somewhere between Jonathan Swift and George Orwell.
I cannot picture the audience for these things—did they cringe, swear never to invite him back? Did the selection committee members smile wryly at the message being exactly as they had hoped?
This book gives us some insight into the contradictions that was Victorian England—it was not all science, wealth and adventure, there was a seething dissatisfaction, an astonishment at the bare hypocrisy of this supposed Christian nation’s worship of money, lack of charity for the poor, the state’s support for amoral imperial adventures, and of course the wasteful arm’s race.
In a series of well-turned (but for today, overly verbose) phrases, Mr. Ruskin tries to bring his audience back to “first things”—what we owe in respect for those that came before us, and what we owe as an entrustment to those who will come after us. Apparently British/American society has always had difficulty keeping those two obligations in mind. Have we in fact always been “live for today” hippies? It would seem so.
My favorite quote:
"The idea of self-denial for the sake of posterity, of practicing present economy for the sake of debtors yet unborn, of planting forests that our descendants may live under their shade … never I suppose, efficiently takes place among publicly recognized motives of exertion. Yet these are not the less our duties; nor is our part fitly sustained upon the earth, unless the range of our intended and deliberate usefulness include, not only the companions but the successors of our pilgrimage. God has lent us the earth for our life; it is a great entail. It belongs as much to those who are to come after us … as to us; we have no right, by anything that we do or neglect, to involve them in unnecessary penalties, or deprive them of benefits which it was in our power to bequeath."
I cannot picture the audience for these things—did they cringe, swear never to invite him back? Did the selection committee members smile wryly at the message being exactly as they had hoped?
This book gives us some insight into the contradictions that was Victorian England—it was not all science, wealth and adventure, there was a seething dissatisfaction, an astonishment at the bare hypocrisy of this supposed Christian nation’s worship of money, lack of charity for the poor, the state’s support for amoral imperial adventures, and of course the wasteful arm’s race.
In a series of well-turned (but for today, overly verbose) phrases, Mr. Ruskin tries to bring his audience back to “first things”—what we owe in respect for those that came before us, and what we owe as an entrustment to those who will come after us. Apparently British/American society has always had difficulty keeping those two obligations in mind. Have we in fact always been “live for today” hippies? It would seem so.
My favorite quote:
"The idea of self-denial for the sake of posterity, of practicing present economy for the sake of debtors yet unborn, of planting forests that our descendants may live under their shade … never I suppose, efficiently takes place among publicly recognized motives of exertion. Yet these are not the less our duties; nor is our part fitly sustained upon the earth, unless the range of our intended and deliberate usefulness include, not only the companions but the successors of our pilgrimage. God has lent us the earth for our life; it is a great entail. It belongs as much to those who are to come after us … as to us; we have no right, by anything that we do or neglect, to involve them in unnecessary penalties, or deprive them of benefits which it was in our power to bequeath."
February 1, 2020
Esta colección de 4 ensayos contiene muchas partes dignas de recordar. También me hace notar que muchos de los problemas que creemos nuevos son de lo más antiguo.
May 21, 2020
Hey! Ruskin is a pretty clever writer. I like that he liked Turner, but I'm not wild about that whole Whistler debacle that ended up bankrupting him. For shame Ruskin (but I guess he had some brain disorder? I'm not really a historical conspiracy theorist). Anyway! Ruskin can turn a phrase and these are definitely speech-like essays. Here are my collected short and very clever summaries:
Essay 1: When you build a house you should build it with care and with quality so that it endures. People laughably don't do this! (Ruskin is a bit of a pompous aristocrat about it-who would have guessed!?)
Essay 2: Hello students of this art school. Teaching art is best done by cultivating a sense of art itself for itself. If done for any other reason, then the means become the end-e.g. the school you are in. People laughably don't reflect on this.
Essay 3: At least books give us access to the knowledge of the wise who are dead. Cultivating the ability to glean that wisdom, though it affords little more than more clearly defined questions rather than answers, is what might be called virtue in this age where unadulterated virtue is impossible as it is corrupted by a constant and subtle distortion of its proper aim.
End of essay 3: sort of descends into ham-fisted rhetoric lambasting society at large for not investing in knowledge, wisdom, libraries, and the sort. It gets a bit dull but the very end comes back together to make a strong quasi anti-capitalist and pro-education point.
Last essay "Traffic": I've come here to say I can't advise you about how to design your Exchange because you aren't honest with yourselves about what is important in life (majority). But if you want a quick answer, put a statue of Britannia of the Markets with a partridge on her shield. Just remember to feel bad about being inveterate, boorish businessmen.
Essay 1: When you build a house you should build it with care and with quality so that it endures. People laughably don't do this! (Ruskin is a bit of a pompous aristocrat about it-who would have guessed!?)
Essay 2: Hello students of this art school. Teaching art is best done by cultivating a sense of art itself for itself. If done for any other reason, then the means become the end-e.g. the school you are in. People laughably don't reflect on this.
Essay 3: At least books give us access to the knowledge of the wise who are dead. Cultivating the ability to glean that wisdom, though it affords little more than more clearly defined questions rather than answers, is what might be called virtue in this age where unadulterated virtue is impossible as it is corrupted by a constant and subtle distortion of its proper aim.
End of essay 3: sort of descends into ham-fisted rhetoric lambasting society at large for not investing in knowledge, wisdom, libraries, and the sort. It gets a bit dull but the very end comes back together to make a strong quasi anti-capitalist and pro-education point.
Last essay "Traffic": I've come here to say I can't advise you about how to design your Exchange because you aren't honest with yourselves about what is important in life (majority). But if you want a quick answer, put a statue of Britannia of the Markets with a partridge on her shield. Just remember to feel bad about being inveterate, boorish businessmen.
March 11, 2015
John Ruskin is with no doubt one of the most brilliant minds of the victorian era. His views on social and behavioral levels are truly enlightening. His words are easily understood and presented in a surprisingly modern fashion. I highly recommend this book.
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September 2, 2020"yapabildiğini yap ve yapamadığını dürüstçe itiraf et! Ne hata korkusundan çabalarının alçalmasına izin ver, ne de utanç korkusundan itirafının susturulmasına..."
July 22, 2020
Interessant recull de tres textos escrits pel crític d'art victorià John Ruskin.
En aquest recull, Ruskin no només expressa els seus pensaments sobre art, estètica o arquitectura, sinó que també és crític amb d'altres temes com les diferències socials o la despesa que fa la Gran Bretanya en l'exèrcit. Així mateix, el seu discurs té un fort component cristià, tot i contemplar posicions properes al socialisme.
És un petit llibre amb idees amb les que podria comulgar, però si fem allò de no separar l'obra de l'autor, John Ruskin em resulta un personatge del tot desagradable, ja que tenia una fascinació inquietant per a les nenes.
En aquest recull, Ruskin no només expressa els seus pensaments sobre art, estètica o arquitectura, sinó que també és crític amb d'altres temes com les diferències socials o la despesa que fa la Gran Bretanya en l'exèrcit. Així mateix, el seu discurs té un fort component cristià, tot i contemplar posicions properes al socialisme.
És un petit llibre amb idees amb les que podria comulgar, però si fem allò de no separar l'obra de l'autor, John Ruskin em resulta un personatge del tot desagradable, ja que tenia una fascinació inquietant per a les nenes.
January 9, 2021
This little book contains four essays by John Ruskin. Never having read Ruskin I wanted to begin "light." But immediately I was caught up in his writing, some of the finest writing I've ever read. As it turns out, I was the one in the dark, for Ruskin has many champions. His thought processes are remarkable for clarity and depth. Let me share, gentle reader, why you would do well to read his essay, "Of Kings' Treasuries," one of the best pieces I have read in over fifty years of reading that began with Hardy Boys, Tom Swift, and Nancy Drew.
1. We all are afraid of death until we're not. This becomes a living truth for those who commune more frequently with the dead than with the living. Such a person is in the position to compare and contrast what he or she is experiencing. Communing with the dead is far more rewarding that with the living for the living are always anxious about their pain, their anxiety, their futures, and their ailments. The dead have moved beyond those problems.
2. Ruskin is very sober in his evaluation of daily social life. The vision offered in such circumstances is necessarily troubled, narrow, petty. There is, however, a higher social world, the world of the written word left to us by those who have passed away. This is a society that all are invited to, should they have the will and fortitude to forego daily demands for its sake. Here we can consult the advice of kings and counselors, enjoy the company of witty authors, and laugh and cry over specific characters whose troubles and successes we enjoy.
3. For the reasons given I highly recommend new readers to this essay and more experienced readers to forego the books of the hour, the books for the moment and spend considerable more time with the books for all ages.
1. We all are afraid of death until we're not. This becomes a living truth for those who commune more frequently with the dead than with the living. Such a person is in the position to compare and contrast what he or she is experiencing. Communing with the dead is far more rewarding that with the living for the living are always anxious about their pain, their anxiety, their futures, and their ailments. The dead have moved beyond those problems.
2. Ruskin is very sober in his evaluation of daily social life. The vision offered in such circumstances is necessarily troubled, narrow, petty. There is, however, a higher social world, the world of the written word left to us by those who have passed away. This is a society that all are invited to, should they have the will and fortitude to forego daily demands for its sake. Here we can consult the advice of kings and counselors, enjoy the company of witty authors, and laugh and cry over specific characters whose troubles and successes we enjoy.
3. For the reasons given I highly recommend new readers to this essay and more experienced readers to forego the books of the hour, the books for the moment and spend considerable more time with the books for all ages.
November 26, 2025
at first it looks like the works of a madman rambling particularly interested and adamant about extreme preservation. however later his reasons become clear and you understand that it's not the architecture but the underlining drive and reasons of the cultures actions. this is later exemplified by his speech to the exchange owners, where he knocks capitalism not for it's inherent evilness in inequality. but more by asking why we would opt for a system that does not help us all, and whether we even know why there needs to be more and more for the sake of getting more. (this is an oversimplification of the argument) I greatly appreciate how there is a very emphatic take on why we would do this and a call for us to do better not for the sake of injustice but more since it's in all of us to treat each other beter.
December 22, 2017
This collection of essays includes a chapter from the book The Seven Lamps, which is great. I really love Ruskin and his take on architecture is truly timeless. That being said I find it hard to give this collection five stars as a) Ruskin is not the best writer b) he ties in 'the masses' in unnecessary places and c) his religiously inspired antisemitism is way to toxic to ignore. These problems are all highlighted in the speeches and secondary essays packaged in this Penguin Great Ideas edition.
All that being said, I strongly recommend reading the excerpt from The Seven Lamps. Like His The Stones of Venice, it is a work of genius and explores the importance of architecture as a way of reliving history and understanding a nation's true essence.
All that being said, I strongly recommend reading the excerpt from The Seven Lamps. Like His The Stones of Venice, it is a work of genius and explores the importance of architecture as a way of reliving history and understanding a nation's true essence.
March 6, 2019
No me gusto, quizá por mi falta de conocimientos de arquitectura victoriana inglesa y por la lejanía de esa época en comparación con la mia. Aún así estoy dispuesto a darle una segunda oportunidad al autor, aunque no me gusta mucho como mezcla el sentimentalismo en su obra. 😕
July 27, 2020
This was a bit of a mixed bag! Though I tend to agree with Ruskin generally, there were a few things in the second essay (Of Kings' Treasuries) I couldn't get on board with. But the man certainly is PASSIONATE about what he believes and I vibe with that.
[read for the Reading Rush 2020]
[read for the Reading Rush 2020]
Read
November 4, 2022no sé si me convence y escribe un poco pesado pero definitivamente mucho mejor que viollet-le-duc
February 28, 2024
A fun read.
March 20, 2025
De lo más aburrido que he leído nunca.
May 9, 2013
John Ruskin was one of the most important art critics of the Victorian era. He writes about art the way Kant wrote about metaphysics, or the way Gaiman writes about fantasy-based modern societies: with passion, and believability. This book isn't a 'start to finish' account of one particular subject. Rather, it serves as a collection of several essays and collections of public accounts (my personal favourite being his inaugural address at the Cambridge School of Art - 1858).
Ruskin was years ahead of the crowd. He speaks of the diminishing 'perceived' value of art and creative projects way before we arrived here in 2013. Ruskin also takes the time to critique the reasoning behind why people make art, and why those who step into any creative process with monetary or narcissistic-based intentions are doomed for failure.
There are many quotes in this book, but here is one of my favourites:
'There's no way of getting good Art, I repeat, but one - at once the simplest and most difficult - namely, to enjoy it. Examine the history of nations, and you will find this great fact clear and unmistakeable on the front of it - that good Art has only been produced by nations who rejoiced in it; fed themselves with it, as if it were bread; basked in it, as if it were sunshine; shouted at the sight of it; danced with the delight of it; quarrelled for it; fought for it; starved for it; did, in fact, precisely the opposite with it of what we want to do with it - they made it to keep, and we to sell'
Ruskin was years ahead of the crowd. He speaks of the diminishing 'perceived' value of art and creative projects way before we arrived here in 2013. Ruskin also takes the time to critique the reasoning behind why people make art, and why those who step into any creative process with monetary or narcissistic-based intentions are doomed for failure.
There are many quotes in this book, but here is one of my favourites:
'There's no way of getting good Art, I repeat, but one - at once the simplest and most difficult - namely, to enjoy it. Examine the history of nations, and you will find this great fact clear and unmistakeable on the front of it - that good Art has only been produced by nations who rejoiced in it; fed themselves with it, as if it were bread; basked in it, as if it were sunshine; shouted at the sight of it; danced with the delight of it; quarrelled for it; fought for it; starved for it; did, in fact, precisely the opposite with it of what we want to do with it - they made it to keep, and we to sell'
November 3, 2014
John Ruskin sure does have a very interesting philosophical take on architecture, arts and crafts, knowledge, literature, and learning. I enjoyed how he perceived architecture in terms of time capsules that commemorates our ancestors in every possible manner. It holds their thoughts, their beliefs, their daily routines and all that mattered to them and made them who they were. It was part of them as much as everything else, so why ruin it? For buildings hold their beauty and aesthetics from their ageing and the memories trapped within. Ruskin's association of architecture and religion was interesting. Anyhow, the book is just a mere compilation of Ruskin's original writings, so it's divided in 4 chapters on very rich topics, that each of them need a book on its own. However, it's a good overview of his ideas.
July 6, 2015
I am heartbroken I cannot give this a better rating. I originally picked this book because it loosley mirrored my own dissertation on Buildings and Memory.
The ideas contained are fantastic, and as a whole the arguments are coherant and wonderfully thought provoking.
However, the writing style is overtly opaque and verbose. Some elements suit it; but, primarily, it simply detracts from the point by being too clever for itself.
Such a wonderful book, but the writing style makes you grit your teeth to read it.
The ideas contained are fantastic, and as a whole the arguments are coherant and wonderfully thought provoking.
However, the writing style is overtly opaque and verbose. Some elements suit it; but, primarily, it simply detracts from the point by being too clever for itself.
Such a wonderful book, but the writing style makes you grit your teeth to read it.
November 12, 2017
Having already read On Art and Life, I knew what I was getting into. Verbose Victorian prose and grand ideas about art. The lectures include these subjects: the role architecture has in culture, to the potential of men, to the role of Cambridge School of Art to the relationship between taste and morals.
June 18, 2020
Öncelikle John Ruskin çevirilerinin artması özellikle değerli. Kitaba gelince kitap Ruskin'in mimarlık özelinde sanat ve toplumla ilgili 11 yazısından oluşuyor. Ruskin'in yazıları modern mimarlığın henüz başlangıcındaki tartışmaları ortaya koyuyor. Bugün mimarlıkta hala benzer tartışmaların sürdüğü düşünüldüğünde bu yazıların tekrar tekrar okunmasında yarar var.
August 15, 2011
"I want to speak to you about the treasures hidden in books;" a grand sentiment that I fully endorse
March 1, 2015
Best book I've ever read about lamps. And memory.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews