WRITTEN IN STONE: Ruskin and Venice

In collaboration with Save Venice
A lecture by Octavia Randolph
In December 2014 Octavia Randolph published her long-awaited novel, Light, Descending, about the English Victorian art critic John Ruskin. She writes of Venice and of Ruskin: “The city was so central to his world view and development of aesthetic theory that it must by nature occupy a signal place in his creative universe. It served as touchstone in his personal life as well; when he and Effie finally made their long-delayed wedding trip abroad Venice was the goal. Almost thirty years later, overwintering in the city, Ruskin descended into a grave psychological state marked by the hallucinations which would haunt him the remainder of his life. Yet as we know from his writings Venice symbolised the entirely of civilization to him, and wandering its calles he read not only the story of La Serenissima but the past and future of his own maritime empire, Britain.”
Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò
New York University
February 24, 2015

[@jenniferfulborough9308]

Thank you for such a glorious lecture. I will now search for your novel on this subject.

[@OxenHandler]

We'll know the world is well again when women are binding their hair again. So beautiful.

[@2msvalkyrie529]

? ? ? ? !

[@OxenHandler]

@@2msvalkyrie529 ...and wallpapering their rooms again.

[@TMPreRaff]

This is not a lecture; it's a reading.

[@johnmartin2813]

I had heard that JR had claimed non-consummation of the marriage so that Effie could get am easier divorce. To me this seems probable because he was that sort of man.

[@johnmartin2813]

A pity it was so difficult to hear the questions.

[@catherineabel]

What’s the woman’s name who is delivering the lecture …?