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1) What Is Art?
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While Tolstoy may be best remembered as the talented Russian author of such monumentally great works as "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina", he also wrote prolifically in essay format on various subjects. In this volume Tolstoy turns his attention to the study of aesthetics and art in all its forms. Based on fifteen years of research, "What is Art?" is Tolstoy's intellectual exposition into answering the titular question. Rich with criticism for his...
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In 1869 Ruskin was appointed the Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford. His inaugural lectures, delivered between February 8th and March 23rd of 1870, focused on the limits and elementary practice of art, and were published in book form later that year. In the lectures, Ruskin offers his keen insights on art and its relation to religion, morality, and every day life, as well as a detailed analysis on the meaning of line, light, and color. Ruskin later...
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This second in a three-volume series on Venetian art and architecture focuses on the Byzantine and Gothic periods. Ruskin discusses the palaces belonging to each era, along with the "nature" of the Gothic and the beautiful islands of Murano and Torcello in the Byzantine period.
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When Fairy Blackstick created a magical rose and ring, she did not anticipate their existence to be so troublesome. With the power to warp perception, the rose and the ring each make their bearer seem beautiful and irresistibly charming. However, as they are passed down, the magic of the items had been forgotten, leaving their new owners clueless of this ability. The ring resides in the Paflagonia kingdom. Giglio, the King's nephew, is the rightful...
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It is remarkably appropriate that this work on aesthetics should have been written by George Santayana, who is probably the most brilliant philosophic writer and the philosopher with the strongest sense of beauty since Plato. It is not a dry metaphysical treatise, as works on aesthetics so often are, but is itself a fascinating document: as much a revelation of the beauty of language as of the concept of beauty.
This unabridged reproduction of the...
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Subtitled "Being Simple Studies on Christian Art for English Travellers," Ruskin uses this 1877 work to advise pilgrims to Italy on what works of art to see during a limited time. His casual stroll conducts readers through the gates and basilicas of the city to ponder the genius of Giotto, Ghirlandajo, Boticelli, and others.
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In this 1859 publication, Ruskin sets forth the fundamental rules of perspective in a short mathematical form. Written not for a select few, the book conveys complex information in a way that art students at many levels will understand. A classic that is still relevant today.
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Published in 1891, this volume is a gathering of Moore's previously published articles, largely revised or rewritten for the book's publication. Moore offers incisive commentary and insights on such artists as Balzac, Verlaine, Rimbaud, and Degas, and proves to be a formidable art critic in a collection that the New York Times lauded as "fascinating."
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This 1866 book is comprised of the lectures that Ruskin gave to various girls' schools on the fundamentals of mineralogy. Rather than in a lecture format, however, the information is conveyed in the form of a delightful dialogue between Ruskin and his students. Interesting and engaging.
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Your outlook on life is so different from mine that I can hardly imagine you being built of the same stuff as myself. Yet I venture to put my difficulty before you. It is, of course, no question of mental grasp or capacity or artistic endowment. I am, so far as these are concerned, merely the man in the street, the averagely endowed and the ordinarily educated. I call myself a Puritan and a Christian. I run continually against walls of convention,...
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"At the Back of the North Wind" is a classic children's story first serialized in England in 1868 and published into a book in 1871 by the Scottish author George MacDonald. This enchanting fairy tale follows Diamond, a sweet, innocent, and joyful young stable boy in Victorian London who goes on adventures with the majestic North Wind. The North Wind is personified as a lovely and mysterious woman, both severe and kind, who teaches young Diamond about...
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Otto of the Silver Hand (1888), Howard Pyle's first novel for children, is a grim yet empowering narrative of medieval Germany, following the adventures of a young hero caught between the power struggles of two families. With its gripping battle scenes, romance, and villainous warlords, this is a reading experience that continues to thrill over one hundred years after its initial publication.
Otto, a gentle boy born to a noble Germanic family in...
13) Modern Painting
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Published in 1893, Modern Painting is considered among the first serious attempts to introduce the art of the Impressionists to an English audience. Drawn from articles Moore had written for newspapers and magazines, the book did much to influence the critical reception of this "new" style of painting. He discusses artists Edouard Manet, Alfred Sisley, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and Philip Wilson Steer-and includes chapters written on topics...
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Though best known as a novelist, James also wrote non-fiction, including this controversial 1907 account of his 1905-06 American tour. By 1905 he had lived in England for twenty-five years, and it is as a returning expatriate that James views the country of his birth-and finds much to criticize in its embrace of crass materialism.
15) In Ghostly Japan
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The Japanese have two kinds of ghosts in their folklore-the spirits of the dead, and the spirits of the living. This classic of Japanese literature invites you to take your choice, if you dare. In Ghostly Japan collects twelve ghostly stories from Lafcadio Hearn, deathless images of ghosts and goblins, touches of folklore and superstition, salted with traditions of the nation. While some of these stories contain nightmare imagery worthy of a midnight...
16) The Renaissance
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Pater's graceful essays discuss the achievements of Botticelli, Leonardo, Michelangelo, and other artists. included is his celebrated discussion of the Mona Lisa in a study of Da Vinci. This book concludes with an uncompromising advocacy of hedonism, urging readers to experience life as fully as possible. His cry of "art for art's sake" became the manifesto of the Aesthetic Movement, and his assessments of Renaissance art have influenced generations...
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Upon his arrival in Japan in 1890, Lafcadio Hearn found himself enamored with the culture, people, and stories of the country, and would make Japan his home until his death in 1904. His collections of stories published during this time became the most popular of Hearn's writings, and earned him veneration worldwide as not only a great translator of Japanese mythology, but as a sensational teller of strange and wonderfully macabre tales. "Kwaidan"...
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Confessions of a Young Man (1888) is a memoir by George Moore. Originally written in French, it is a record of his life in Paris as a young man with money and dreams to spare. Controversial for its depictions of bohemianism and pointed critique of Victorian morality, Confessions of a Young Man has been recognized as an invaluable portrait of nineteenth century Paris and the geniuses who struggled to reshape art in their image. Degas. Renoir. Monet....
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Using architecture, sculpture, culture and history, Adams humanizes the medieval period and provides valuable insight on religious philosophy. Mont-Saint Michel and Chartes provides a background and description of the construction of two French landmarks built in the 11th century. The Mont-Saint Michel cathedral was built during a militant time; it was not enough to simply be steadfast in one's own beliefs, but also to make others believe them. Religious...
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This early work by G. K. Chesterton was originally published in 1908. Gilbert Keith Chesterton was born in London in 1874. He studied at the Slade School of Art, and upon graduating began to work as a freelance journalist. Over the course of his life, his literary output was incredibly diverse and highly prolific, ranging from philosophy and ontology to art criticism and detective fiction. However, he is probably best-remembered for his Christian...
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