A Torch at Midnight

A study of John Ruskin's first work of architectural criticism

---

The first edition of John Ruskin's The Seven Lamps of Architecture
is one of the most extraordinary books ever produced.
Confronted with the task of explaining the complex and
mysterious nature of medieval art, Ruskin produced a concept
volume of Gothic art and architecture that embodied the principles
it described.
In this arresting re-appraisal of Ruskin's great architectural
books, Robert Brownell reveals the deep, esoteric roots of
Ruskin's philosophy. The Seven Lamps of Architecture and The
Stones of Venice contain dark and hidden meanings in their
fabric, structure and language that remain unrecognised by
most readers. Their occult wisdom not only demonstrates
Ruskin's understanding of the subtle visual and intellectual
beauties of Gothic art, and the pagan cosmos on which it was
based, but also reveals the true John Ruskin.
The popular myth of Ruskin as the archetypal Victorian patriarch
has persistently clouded interpretation of his ideas,
introducing spurious psycho-social motives based on a misunderstood
scandal. The Ruskin that emerges from A Torch at
Midnight is quite different: heretical in religion, radical in politics,
subversive in economics and relentless in the pursuit of
truth and meaning. Faced with establishment suspicion of
heresy in any sphere, he disguised his controversial ideas by
drawing on a literary tradition going back through Goethe,
Spenser and Dante to ancient Greece.
A Torch at Midnight explores in detail the development of
Ruskin's ideas and his presentation of them in his books. By
demonstrating the visual and intellectual beauties of true
design, Ruskin's aim was to intrigue and fascinate his readers to
enlightenment.