This authoritative biography of John Ruskin, the most influential nineteenth-century critic of art and society, is the fruit of almost twenty years of research and the first to return to the original sources. It draws on the complete text of Ruskin's diaries and many thousands of unpublished letters and other documents to provide fresh insight into the background and content of Ruskin's numerous books. In this fascinating book, Hilton shows how the youthful art critic became a significant didactic writer, developing a unique voice that was to shape his future as the most eloquent and radical of all the great Victorian writers.