Materiality in John Ruskin's Early Letters and Dialogues

Between 1827 and 1829, John Ruskin underwent a rite of passage to being admitted as participant in his parents’ personal correspondence. Simultaneously, juvenilia, he composed dialogues between children parents imitation conversations Aikin Barbauld’s Evenings at Home Maria Edgeworth’s Frank: A Sequel Harry Lucy Concluded. This article investigates how Ruskin’s management fictional under control intersected with participation family letters, which was managed by parents, particularly mother, Margaret Ruskin. She discouraged preoccupation the materiality letter writing since, her view, purpose letters lay sincere confession feeling. At same time, anxious that uphold respectful epistolary relationship father, consulted letter-writing manuals for rules manage John’s rhetoric well material presentation. subverted these constraints invented parent-child dialogues, reversing or deflecting Edgeworth’ lessons self-control humility. Thus, staked place correspondence on own terms, persisting fashioning distinctly emphasis bond father.