Sesame and Lilies: Three Lectures by John Ruskin, L.L.D.

Sunnyside, Orpington and London: George Allen, 1898 Reprint. Hardcover in green cloth, 8vo., 228 pp. Title in gilt to spine. T.e.g., other edges untrimmed. Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson & Co., Edinburgh and London. A small sticker of "New and Old" Leeds bookseller Henry Walker is on the front pastedown. This volume contains several lectures by eminent British art historian and social critic, John Ruskin (1819-1900.) The first lecture, given in Manchester in 1864, rebuts the assertions of the Queen Victoria's Canon Frederick Anson on the topic of "What to Read." Ruskin urges his audience to read books which challenge their preconceived notions, rather than "finding your own views expressed by them." He critiques church authority, the landed gentry and what he sees as a "nation which despises literature." He pleas for public education, libraries, and other institutions of learning to be available to the common man. The second lecture "Lilies of the Queen's Garden" is an impassioned plea for the education and rights of women. Lecture Three, given at The Royal College of Science, Dublin, 1868 is entitled "The Mystery of Life and its Arts." Publisher George Allen (1832-1907) was an English craftsman and engraver who became an assistant to John Ruskin, and eventually his publisher. Condition: Very Good Minus. With moderate wear to edges, and at head and tail of spine. (Front hinge just starting.) There is moderate foxing to the endpapers, however, the interior is mostly not affected. This is a solid reading copy. Watson 1347.. Hard Cover. Very Good Minus.