John Ruskin (1819-1900) was all these things - and one of the most influential figures of the Victorian age:
 

I think he is the finest writer living. – George Eliot, 1856

In fact it becomes clearer to the world than ever that there is but one Ruskin in the world; an unguidable man, but with quantities of lightning in the interior of him, which are strange and probably dangerous to behold.  – Thomas Carlyle, 1874

How mightily this dead man lives. – Marcel Proust on hearing of Ruskin’s death, 1900

The book (Ruskin's Unto This Last) was impossible to lay aside, once I had begun it…I could not get any sleep that night. I determined to change my life in accordance with the ideals of the book. - Mohandas Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, 1929

Light, Descending by Octavia Randolph brings Ruskin’s story to light – and to life.  To read an excerpt published in Narrative Magazine from this forthcoming novel, click here.

Background drawing of a capital from the Doge’s Palace, Venice, by John Ruskin, from The Seven Lamps of Architecture

Music: Frederic Chopin, Étude #3 in A flat major, performed by Betts