John Ruskin: The Later Years

An affectionately and well-written account of Ruskin's life (I'm referring here to parts 1 and 2 of this biography, taken as a whole). As another reviewer has pointed it, the book does move along nicely, leaving the reader feeling as though he has been given a solid picture of a period in Ruskin's life (the book is organized chronologically), though not that he has exhausted all possible accounts of it, accounts which could easily become boring to all but the most devoted of Ruskin's admirers. The only thing for which I would fault the book is its sometimes cumbersome, dry over-emphasis on facts -- lots of facts. We are too often told about where, what and when instead of why. Perhaps it was the author's intention to give an "objective" account of Ruskin's life, one in the shadow of which we'd paint our own picture of Ruskin the man. But that would seem to be contradicted by the obvious affection with which Hilton writes. Nevertheless, it was an informative read and the two volumes evidence Hilton's enormous work of scholarship. Ruskin was one of the most prolific writers we know of, but here Mr. Hilton shows that he familiarized himself thoroughly with Ruskin's works and letters. If for nothing else, we should be grateful for that. With a little humor and more analysis, this would be a near perfect biography. As it is, it's the most authoritative contemporary account of its subject and a fulfilling read.

To begin with the headlines: Ruskin was a racist, sexist, anti-democratic pedophile. Despite all of this (grounds for civil, if not criminal, liability today), Hilton has managed to craft a magnificent biography. He does not condemn these parts of Ruskin's character -- raising the question of whether it is place of biography to condemn -- he simply states the facts. Hilton certainly does, however, praise Ruskin where praise is due, perhaps posing this problem of biography in reverse. In this book, a fifteen year later sequel to "The Early Years," available here in paperback, but in hardbound only through the out-of-print service, Hilton accomplishes everything for which one could wish in a literary biography. Hilton makes you feel Ruskin's inspirations and how they colored, often drove, his numerous works. He ties Ruskin into his time and how he stood in relation to his contemporaries. I'm not sure that Ruskin was worth the dedication of so much of Mr. Hilton's life and labor. Surely that is for him to decide. Nevertheless, this is, and will remain, the definitive work on Ruskin.

It has been a hundred years since John Ruskin's death, ending his 60-year career as a writer with these last words: "the fireflies everywhere in sky and cloud rising and falling, mixed with lightning, and more intense than the stars" (p. 578). I first encountered Ruskin as a graduate student in a Victorian literature seminar taught by Ian Fletcher. Ruskin was a university professor who, like my own professor, encouraged students not to study merely "in expectation of advancement in the material world once they graduated" (p. 466). There are "treasures hidden in books" (p. 91), Ruskin wrote, and as a student I found Ruskin's writing filled with treasures that have enriched my life for years since finishing college.In his excellent new biography, Hilton returns to Ruskin during his subject's "later years." However, the book actually picks up with Ruskin entering his middle years at age 40, and ends with Ruskin's death in 1900 at the age of 81. Ruskin died on the doorstep of the 20th century. "What is the world coming to? I wish I could stay to see" (p. 484) we find Ruskin wondering. Hilton follows Ruskin's troubled descent from the heights of his life as a true Renaissance man--prolific writer, social critic, artist, art critic, Victorian intellectual, and eccentric Oxford professor--to Ruskin in his final years, an unhappy, bewildered, and silent man, incapable of writing, and looking "like Lear in the last scene" (p. 589). "Life is really quite disgustingly too short," Ruskin reflects at one point in the book. "One has only got one's materials together by the time one can no longer use them" (p. 531).Ruskin's life is so fascinating, it is a wonder that it took someone a hundred years to write this biography. Hilton triumphs in bringing Ruskin to life. We learn, for instance, that Ruskin was an avid collector of drawings, gems, minerals, manuscripts, shells, photographs, birds' feathers, sculptures, books, and paintings. While an Oxford professor, he played hide-and-seek in Christ Church Cathedral. We witness his intellectual doubts eroding his religious faith. More curious, perhaps, we experience the "sad and wasteful story" (p. 132) of Ruskin's relationship (and obsession) with Rose La Touche, to whom he proposed marriage in 1866. Rose had just turned 18. Ruskin was 46 and divorced from an unconsumated marriage. Ruskin suffers for Rose in this book, and we feel his pain. We then watch Ruskin's progressive "mental collapse" into madness, following a series of breakdowns beginning after Rose's untimely death, leaving Ruskin "lost in a wildrness [sic] of thoughts" (p. 419), with no control over his mind or life.This definitive biography gives Ruskin the long-overdue attention he deserves. Hilton's insight into his subject and vast knowledge of Ruskin's writing suggest he has spent his entire life studying Ruskin. Hilton is a fine writer, and this is a fine book that will hopefully prompt