Ruskin's centenary fell in 2000 and inevitably brought a number of biographies and studies, of which this one seems as good as any. He was blessed and cursed with adoring, but demanding and rather tyrannous parents, his marriage to Effie Gray was dissolved because of non-consummation, his obsession with young Rose La Touche only brought him misery, and he was generally unlucky in his personal relations with artists, such as Rossetti and Millais. Nevertheless, in spite of private disappointments Ruskin's cultural achievement was huge, since he brought about a virtual revolution of taste in mid-Victorian Britain and his legacy can be seen in buildings all over the British Isles. The popular misconception of him as a humourless prophet-crank is dispelled by this book - Ruskin was in fact sensitive and affectionate, though he had his oddities and was inclined to take over people's lives for them. The illustrations are well worth having.