ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -John Ruskin (8 February 1819 – 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and political economy.

Detailed explanation-2: -Ruskin was born in London in 1819 to a prosperous wine merchant, John James, and his pious evangelical wife, Margaret, who dedicated themselves to cultivating their only child’s genius. A present, on his 13th birthday, of a volume of Samuel Rogers’s poem Italy with vignettes engraved after watercolors by J. M. W.

Detailed explanation-3: -He was educated at home, where he was influenced by his father’s collection of watercolors and his mother’s pious Protestantism. Ruskin recalled a rigorous daily practice of bible reading and interpretation, which was to provide an early foundation for his work in criticism.

Detailed explanation-4: -John Ruskin was one of the greatest Victorians; his range of interests and achievements were quite staggering. He was an artist, art critic, amateur geologist, a teacher, writer, social critic and philosopher.