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A review by alanffm
The Lamp of Memory by John Ruskin
4.0
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.