Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 rip off February 12, 2004
18 out of 20 found this review helpful
The kessinger edition of this book is a rip off!!! do not buy it!!!
i received a copy in which the margins on the pages were 2 inches all around and the text was so small. everything seemed to be copied with a fax machine, so there was lots of tiny black dots all over the pages. the images are so unclear. they were black and white with no grayscales and it was so hard to make out what the images were. i returned this book for a refund.
buy the dover edition instead. its practically the same text except the text fills up the whole page and the pictures are clear. its also less than half the price of the kessinger edition.
 Be forewarned: Unashamed moralizing and aesthetic certainty June 28, 2003
18 out of 23 found this review helpful
If you are looking for a "practical guide to the
structures and tools" of architecture, this is NOT
your book nor your guide.
For John Ruskin is an art critic, classicist, and
moralizing aesthetic prophet. He is not an "art for art's
sake" temporizer or relativist. He not only knows what
HE believes...but he believes he knows what YOU should
believe too. If that makes you uncomfortable or makes
you feel hampered, you might want to pass him by until
you feel you can accommodate the "insult" and "restrictions"
on your "free will choices." Otherwise, there is much of
beauty, wonder, and insight to be gained in these pages.
Ruskin's point of view is that of a classical Platonist
mixed with the moralizing tenor of an exhorting (but not
shrilly so) prophet toward beauty, Truth, and clarity of
vision...and moral purpose in Art. He also has a wondrous
prose style which is both clear, compelling, and entrancing.
This edition published by Dover as a reprint is of the
second edition of the work from 1880. It also includes
14 plates of drawings which Ruskin did to illustrate the
points which he makes in the text.
Along the way, Ruskin includes shortened Aphorisms
in the margin which restate the bold face print points
which he is making in the text. In Chapter 2, titled
"The Lamp of Truth," Ruskin stands forth most forcefully
and dynamically (and perhaps to the "modern," most
tendentiously) as the classical Platonic moralizer
and aesthetic apostle/prophet/priest. Though raised
a strict Protestant, Ruskin rebelled and left Christianity
for a classical Paganism based on beauty, Truth, and clarity.
Needless to say, this more than tended to alienate him
and isolate him from the mercenary, industrialized
Victorian world which was chugging along outside his
hermetically sealed temple dedicated to Truth, Beauty,
Goodness, and Clarity. Mercantilism and "practical
progress" don't exactly exalt those four princples as
the means or the goals whereby to make money and become
successful in the eyes of the world or popular opinion.
But if you want to read about Truth and Beauty and
read it through the eyes and soul of a lover of those
qualities -- and read it expressed in most beautiful
prose and style (which is both poetic and powerful),
then Ruskin and this work are clearly the choices you
should make.
This excerpt from Ruskin tied to Aphorism 29 {"The
earth is an entail, not a possession.") clearly shows
that Ruskin's vision and prophetic power extend beyond
the merely practical realm of architecture into an
all-encompassing total vision of responsibility and
reverence: "The idea of self-denial for the sake of
posterity, of practising present economy for the sake of
debtors yet unborn, of planting forests that our
descendants may live under their shade, or of raising
cities for future nations to inhabit, 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, and whose names are already written in
the book of creation, as to us, and we have no right, by
any thing that we do or neglect, to involve them in
unnecessary penalties., or deprive them of benefits which
it was in our power to bequeath."
Read...enjoy...benefit...
 outdated March 5, 2003
4 out of 24 found this review helpful
I found that tying in human traits to different styles of architecture was not interesting at all. There is no discussion of building techniques or the practical side of architecture. This would be more for the artist that is trying to project different human feelings into the structure. If you are looking for a techincal guide to architecture this is not it.
Architecture's Most Influential Written Work June 11, 2001
13 out of 14 found this review helpful
This book is the origin of virtually every theory held throughout the history of architecture. The arts and crafts movement, Frank Lloyd Wright's organicism, and Corbusier's New Architecture are just a few examples of prominent theories whose foundations lie within the pages of this book. In this book, Ruskin prescribes the essential elements required to make timeless, meaningful architecture. This manifesto is a must for any student interested in the practice and study of architecture.
Wonderful architectural moralism March 16, 2001
4 out of 8 found this review helpful
Ruskin is a master in morality and architecture. This combination, which is very nineteenth-century-like, mixes Ruskin with a wonderful mastery of the English language. The Seven Lamps is a must-read for all you folks who have not yet studied architecture in all its facets.
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