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![]() John Ruskin
John Ruskin was one of the most esteemed artists, poets, social commentators, and art critics, not only by his own generation, but even today his work is taken as seriously as ever. G.K. Chesterton quoted from him and made mention of his work in several of his own books and essays. Chesterton enjoyed Ruskin's poetry well enough, and he identified with his disdain toward the plainness of 19th century architecture, but it was Ruskin's skepticism regarding the machinery and working class situation of the industrial age that truly united both Chesterton and MacDonald with Ruskin. George MacDonald was brought up during the middle of the industrial revolution and saw the devastating effects it had on both rural areas and on those who peopled them. During his lifetime he watched as the poor became enslaved to this new machinery in order to make the rich become even wealthier. From MacDonald's novel, Ronald Bannerman, concerning machinery:
John Ruskin and George MacDonald shared a comfortable relationship despite the fact that they disagreed on nearly everything involving religion, at least until the latter part of Ruskin's life when he re-embraced the Christian faith of his childhood. Both men came at life from a different perspective though, one gauging mankind's participation and efficacy in creation by the work of his hands, the other by a more mystical approach involving man's thoughts, attitudes, and gestures. As Greville MacDonald put it, "Ruskin, the poet-artist, looked from without inwards; George MacDonald, the poet-novelist, looked from within outwards: that man's mission being the uplifting of work and its beauty, this man's the proving of the Divine Humanity. Ruskin's mind was the more scientific and aggressive, George MacDonald's imaginative and receptive...." While people in the world of art and
architecture still recognize Ruskin's influence, many of
the everyday men and women in our era only remember Ruskin
because of the many plays and movies based on his failed
marriage to Effie Gray, However, even when Rose became of age
and could marry Ruskin at her own consent, she refused
because of their religious differences. Oddly, Rose la Touche, who as a
young girl was already considered quite strange in her
behavior, would go exceedingly mad and die in a nursing
home at only twenty seven years of age while suffering from severe bouts
of
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