"And Now come with Me": A closer look at Ruskin's Writing

With 39 volumes of collected works and several million words to choose from, tackling Ruskin’s prolific writing can be intimidating. Faced with so much reading, it’s often tempting to focus on the nature of his argument and the passion of his polemic, rather than examining the detail of how his language conveys meaning, both intentional and instinctive. Exploring Ruskin’s work from the viewpoint of a practising novelist, this paper takes a personal look at elements of his writing style – and suggests why it might be important to pay attention to the way he expresses his ideas. Close reading of a passage from Stones of Venice considers how Ruskin constructs his prose, why his language is so powerful, and what can be revealed in a handful of words.