Ruskin and the National Theatre

‘If You Will but Study Him’: The Presence of John Ruskin in the Plays of Henry Arthur Jones

“…2 The essays collected in Ruskin, the Theatre and Victorian Visual Culture (2009) focused on Ruskin's aesthetic and cultural theories, and their application to the practices and products of the late-Victorian theatre. 3 John Ruskin and the Victorian Theatre (2010), by Katherine Newey and Jeffery Richards, also explored Ruskin's involvement with the popular theatre of his day, including his friendships with and influence upon some of its leading playwrights and actors. 4 Peter Yeandle went so far as to assert, in his 2013 essay 'Christian Socialism on the Stage: Henry Arthur Jones's Wealth (1889) and the Dramatisation of Ruskinian Political Economy' that Jones's work 'should be of significant interest to Ruskin scholars since he cited the invaluable influence of Ruskin […] not only to his own intellectual development but to his sense of social justice'.…”