Anne Clark Amor
Most Artists is Very Dissipated
Ruskin on Turner
By Dinah Birch
Cassell 144pp £25
The Victorian Painter’s World
By Paula Gillett
Alan Sutton 299pp £16.95
‘Introduced today to the man who beyond all doubt is the greatest of the age; greatest in every faculty of the imagination, in every branch of scenic knowledge, at once the painter and poet of the day,’ wrote Ruskin of his first meeting with Turner in 1840. Nobody but a retired coachman of Tottenham shared his opinion then, but his enthusiasm was unlimited, and through his writings he worked tirelessly to establish Turner’s reputation. Dinah Birch’s selection of Turner’s pictures, and of Ruskin’s criticism, mostly from Modern Painters and Praeterita, is a celebration of the relationship between the artist and his most important interpreter.Superficially the two men had much in common, being solitary, eccentric and fond of poetry and travel, yet they were never intimate, perhaps because Turner was forty-four years older, and from a different background. When he was twelve, Turner worked in an Architect’s office, but quit to become a topographer
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
Knowledge of Sufism increased markedly with the publication in 1964 of The Sufis, by Idries Shah. Nowadays his writings, much like his father’s, are dismissed for their Orientalism and inaccuracy.
@fitzmorrissey investigates who the Shahs really were.
Fitzroy Morrissey - Sufism Goes West
Fitzroy Morrissey: Sufism Goes West - Empire’s Son, Empire’s Orphan: The Fantastical Lives of Ikbal and Idries Shah by Nile Green
literaryreview.co.uk
Rats have plagued cities for centuries. But in Baltimore, researchers alighted on one surprising solution to the problem of rat infestation: more rats.
@WillWiles looks at what lessons can be learned from rat ecosystems – for both rats and humans.
Will Wiles - Puss Gets the Boot
Will Wiles: Puss Gets the Boot - Rat City: Overcrowding and Urban Derangement in the Rodent Universes of John B ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Twisters features destructive tempests and blockbuster action sequences.
@JonathanRomney asks what the real danger is in Lee Isaac Chung's disaster movie.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/eyes-of-the-storm