INTRODUCTION TO VOL. XXXV

THIS volume contains the last of Ruskin’s Works, (I.) the fragment of autobiography called Præterita, together with (II.) the three published Parts of a supplementary volume called Dilecta. In an Appendix are given, as will presently be explained (p. lvii.), several additional passages from the MS. material for Præterita.

Præterita was issued at irregular intervals between 1885 and 1889; the final chapter of it, issued in July 1889, was the last piece that Ruskin wrote. In this Introduction, (I.) the story of his life is continued from the end of 1884 to the close in January 1900 (pp. xxi.-li.). (II.) Some account is next given of Præterita itself (pp. li.-lviii.); and, lastly, (III.) additional information is supplied with regard to various facts, incidents, and episodes touched upon in the book (pp. lviii.-lxxvi.).

I. 1885-1889

The years of Ruskin’s life to be dealt with in this Introduction fall into two periods-that from 1885 to the summer of 1889, during which his pen was still active; and that from the summer of 1889 to the end, when all labour was laid aside. The four years of his last literary period, rendered notable by the writing of Præterita, one of the most charming of all his books, contained for Ruskin many months of fruitful labour and contented peace, broken, however, by repeated attacks of illness. In view of these interruptions, the amount of work which he succeeded in accomplishing is remarkable. Præterita was the main task to which he set himself when he had resigned his Oxford professorship (Vol. XXXIII. p. lvi.). For the rest, he finished Proserpina; wrote A Knight’s Faith; edited several parts of the Roadside Songs of Tuscany, and the whole of Christ’s Folk and Ulric the Farm Servant; and wrote a few miscellaneous pieces. He also devoted much time to the artistic work of the St. George’s Guild. Many of his letters to the several artists in his employ have been given in an earlier volume;¹ they show how much trouble he spent during these years upon enriching his Museum, and in 1886 he arranged an exhibition in London of drawings made for the Guild.² As the writings of

¹ Vol. XXX. pp. lxii.-lxv.

² The catalogue is printed in the same volume, p. 177.

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