Sesamie and Lilies in Three Lectures: Of Kings' Treasuries / Of Queens' Gardens / The Mystery of Life and Its Arts (Statement on the Natures and Duties of Men and Women)

Ruskin, the greatest Victorian bar Victoria, was an artist, scientist, poet, environmentalist, philosopher, and the preeminent art critic of his time. Ruskin's Sesame and Lilies stands as a classic 19th-century statement on the natures and duties of men and women. This volume contains three lectures by Ruskin titled: Of Kings' Treasuries; Of Queens' Gardens; and Of the Mystery of Life. John Of Kings' Treasuries, in which Ruskin critiques Victorian manhood, and Of Queens' Gardens, in which he counsels women to take their places as the moral guides of men and urges the parents of girls to educate them to this end. Feminist critics of the 1960s and 1970s regarded "Of Queens' Gardens" as an exemplary expression of repressive Victorian ideas about femininity. This book offers readers full access to Ruskin's complex and sometimes contradictory views on men and women.