Sesame and Lilies

Sesame and Lilies

John Ruskin's 1865 essay collection sits at the intersection of Victorian literature, art criticism, and social thought, addressing readers across Britain, Europe, and America. Written by the critic and polymath amid debates involving figures such as William Wordsworth, John Keats, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Thomas Carlyle, and Matthew Arnold, the work engaged contemporaries in London, Oxford, and Cambridge with arguments about reading, labor, and moral responsibility.

Background and Context

Ruskin composed the essays during a period marked by debates involving Queen Victoria, the Industrial Revolution, and political figures like Benjamin Disraeli and William Gladstone. Influenced by travels through Italy, Venice, Florence, and Rome, and by encounters with artists and institutions such as J. M. W. Turner, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Morris, and the Royal Academy of Arts, Ruskin addressed audiences that included members of University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, and patrons of the British Museum. The cultural moment also featured dialogues with thinkers associated with Utilitarianism, proponents like John Stuart Mill, and social reformers such as Florence Nightingale and Robert Owen. European intellectual currents from Germany — including the influence of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Immanuel Kant — as well as American figures like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau informed reception.

Content and Themes

The collection comprises essays that interrogate the roles of literature, labour, and gender in Victorian society, engaging with writers and works such as William Shakespeare, John Milton, Homer, Geoffrey Chaucer, and Mary Shelley. Ruskin contrasts aesthetic ideals drawn from Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Sandro Botticelli with craft traditions exemplified by Gothic architecture and builders associated with the Cambridge Camden Society. Themes include moral education referenced against pedagogues like Thomas Arnold and institutions such as Eton College and Harrow School; the value of reading invoked via commentators like Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Walter Pater; and social duty discussed alongside figures like Karl Marx and activists tied to the Chartist movement. Discussions of women's roles implicitly engage names such as Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and reformers including Emmeline Pankhurst and Millicent Fawcett. Ruskin's art-historical method draws on comparisons with collections at the Louvre and the National Gallery. His rhetorical strategies echo review culture found in periodicals like the Edinburgh Review and the North British Review.

Publication History and Editions

Originally delivered as lectures and later revised, the essays were published in editions printed by George Allen in London and circulated in periodicals read in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. Subsequent editions appeared in anthologies curated by scholars at institutions such as Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, and the British Library. Commentaries and collected letters linking Ruskin to correspondents like Charles Dickens, Thomas Carlyle (again), Henry Cole, and John Everett Millais informed critical editions. Later scholarly projects involving Harvard University, Yale University, and Princeton University produced annotated volumes, while exhibitions at the Tate Britain and the Victoria and Albert Museum showcased manuscripts and editions. Translations reached readers via publishers in Paris, Berlin, and Milan, influencing bibliographies compiled by archives including the Bodleian Library and the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

Critical Reception and Influence

Contemporary reviews placed the work in conversation with commentators like John Ruskin's peers Matthew Arnold (again) and T. H. Huxley, attracting praise and critique in outlets such as the Times and the Spectator. Later critics from the New Criticism era to scholars linked with New Historicism and Feminist criticism debated Ruskin's positions; academics at Columbia University, King's College London, and University of Chicago traced his influence on figures like William Morris (again), Henry James, and social reform movements including settlement houses associated with Jane Addams. Literary historians compared Ruskin's cultural prescriptions to policies debated in the Education Act 1870 and civic projects in Manchester and Birmingham. His intersections with debates over craftsmanship informed the revivalist projects of the Arts and Crafts movement and influenced architects and patrons involved with the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings.

Adaptations and Cultural Impact

Although not adapted as a single dramatic work, the essays informed theatrical and visual productions inspired by Ruskinian aesthetics among practitioners like Edward Burne-Jones and designers aligned with William Morris's firms. Museums—Victoria and Albert Museum (again), Tate Modern, and the National Portrait Gallery—have staged exhibitions engaging Ruskin's themes. Educational curricula at University of Oxford (again), University of Cambridge (again), and University College London have integrated the essays into courses alongside texts by John Milton and Jane Austen; translations influenced debates in Milan and Vienna and informed conservation practices at sites such as York Minster and Westminster Abbey. The book’s rhetoric appears in Victorian novels by Anthony Trollope, George Eliot (again), and commentary by journalists working for the Daily Telegraph and reformers like Charles Booth. Contemporary scholarship at centers including the Ruskin Centre and conferences hosted by The British Association for Victorian Studies continue to reassess its legacy.

Category:1865 books