Overview

Superbly edited by Mary Lutyens from the original letters discovered by her untouched in the archives, Effie Ruskin's letters home from Venice give an unparalleled view of Victorian travel and society through the eyes of a highly intelligent and lively young woman. John Ruskin took his wife to Venice for the first time in 1849, and while he worked on books that would define the Victorian aesthetic ideal, Effie explored Venice with growing freedom and independence of thought. Rightly considered a classic both of travel literature and of writing about Victorian art and the milieu where much of it was made and appreciated, 'Effie in Venice' makes a welcome return to print.

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9781843680819

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'Even if these letters had not the special interest of being from John Ruskin's wife, they would be absorbing in their picture of the social life that dominated Venice at this particular period.' Marghanita Laski, Observer 'A lively picture of the 'ancien regime' re-establishing itself for its last fling. Mary Lutyens has put so much into the narrative linking these hitherto unpublished letters and is so at home with the vast cast of characters, that the book is as much hers as Effie's. It is perhaps the most radiant episode in Ruskin's life.' The Times

Author Information

Effie Gray was born in 1928 and married John Ruskin when she was twenty. Their brief marriage was to end in divorce for non-consummation, but not before they had twice travelled to Venice. Effie absconded in 1850, jumping off a train and eventually marrying John Everett Millias. She died in 1897. Mary Lutyens was born in 1909, the fourth daughter of Sir Edwin Lutyens. A novelist, historian and biographer, her works include 'To Be Young', an account of her youth in the conjoined circles of her father and Krishnamurti, two other volumes on the world of Ruskin, 'Millias and the Ruskins' and 'The Ruskins and the Grays', as well as a biography of her father. She was married to J.G. Links, the furrier, detective novelist, art historian and author of 'Venice for Pleasure'. She died in 1999.

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