Elizabeth Helsinger's Argument For Ruskin's Conversion of His Patrons

Paul L. Sawyer, Professor of English, Cornell University

Footnote 10, Chapter 5, of the author's Ruskin's Poetic Argument: The Design of the Major Works, which Cornell University Press published in 1985. It appears in the Victorian web with the kind permission of the author, who of course retains copyright.

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In an ingenious argument, Helsinger shows how Ruskin transforms the privileged audience he addresses, first by treating readers to a conventionally picturesque view of Venice, then by forcing them, through an awareness of history, to recognize their role and their responsibilities as consumers (pp. 159-163).

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Last modified December 2000