Late Style: Approaching Madness in Praeterita

Abstract

The article gives a reading of Ruskin's autobiography, Praeterita, situating it in relation to the title and interests of Fors Clavigera. It examines Ruskin's self-accusations and confessions of ‘folly’ within the context of his encroaching madness: an effort is made to relate this madness to that of Nietzsche, while the phrase, ‘late style’ in the title is intended to compare Ruskin's writing with what Adorno understands of music which can achieve no resolution, as with late Beethoven. The article compares the things going past of the title with Holman Hunt's ‘The Awakening Conscience’ and Ruskin's account of that, and suggests that the picture influences the autobiography, and both anticipate Proust. There is a close reading of several passages in Praeterita in view of the text moving in its late style towards madness.