The Ethics of the Dust

This study by the famous British art critic and writer is written in the form of a Socratic dialogue and details Ruskin’s thoughts on the education system, the development of fine art and design in Europe, and man’s place in the world.
Ten Lectures to Little Housewives on the Elements of Crystallisation — such is the original subtitle of John Ruskin’s The Ethics of the Dust (1866). The patronising line might repel some readers, but in fact, teaching housewives how to clean was the last thing Ruskin was thinking of. The central subject of his study is minerals: their structure, their types, and the process of crystallization. The study is presented in the form of a conversation between the Old Lecturer and a group of schoolgirls aged 9 to 20. Despite the author’s claim that the characters are (almost) all fictional, it is easy to draw parallels between the text and Ruskin’s biography.