The Stones of Venice

By John Ruskin

Book Overview

'It is in Venice, and in Venice only, that effectual blows can be struck at this pestilent art of the Renaissance. Destroy its claims to admiration there, and it can assert them nowhere else.' This was Ruskin's war cry as he entered the now almost forgotten Battle of the Styles on the side against 'the school which has conducted men's inventive and constructional faculties from the Grand Canal to Gower Street.'But first the reader must know the difference between right and wrong; he must find out for himself the best way of doing everything. 'I shall give him stones, and bricks and straw, chisels and trowels and the ground, and then ask him to build, only helping him if I find him puzzled.'Unhappily, both these exciting objectives were attained only after the expenditure of nearly half-a-million words; glorious words, but too many. For fifty years, The Stones of Venice was read by all who went there and thousands who could not; the sightseers whom the city captivates today seldom have its greatest guidebook with them.It is the aim of this new edition to put a fascinating book within reach of travelers-active or armchair-with limited resources of time. Much that was superfluous has been omitted; what remains is the essence of a now very readable and portable book. It is a book for the lover of architecture, the lover of Venice, the lover of lost causes, and, perhaps above all, for the lover of fine writing.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0306802449
• ISBN13: 9780306802447
• Release Date: March 1985
• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 0.69 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.3" x 5.3" x 0.8"

Customer Reviews

excellent abridgement of a brilliant work

The Stones of Venice is beautifully written and a must-read for anyone interested in art, architecture, Venice, and Victorian literature. The massive original has been pared down here into a much more manageable volume without sacrificing its brilliant prose and insightful commentary. It'll easily fit in your carry-on luggage for your next trip to Italy.

A Needed Clarification

Hey, guys! A lot of the reviews of this book are complaining that the text is abridged. No! This book is the first of THREE VOLUMES which, together, make up the entire "Stones of Venice." To get the whole thing, you need to buy Volumes 10 and 11 as well, not just Volume 9. (N.B., "The Nature of Gothic," the best-known part, is in Volume 10.) It's all there. You just weren't looking in the right place. That having been said, it's a shame that one has to spend about $300 to get the complete text in a nice, hardbound format. But it's still a worthy investment.

an architecture page turner

This is an abridged version of the original 3 volumes, but a delightful book -- both for the opinions expressed and the wonderful pomposity with which they are presented. It's impossible not to learn about art and architecture from this book, but it also (perhaps not intentionally) makes Woody Allen's or Steve Martin's New Yorker pieces seem like downers. The man has no humility and there is no opinion other than his, yet somehow the clarity and vitality of his description allows you to continue reading. I was fortunate enough to pick this up in Venice, so I was able to search out his examples of the 5 worst buildings in Venice, and similar Ruskinisms.