A Joy for Ever began life as two lectures given in Manchester in July 1857. Edited and expanded, they were then reprinted in the same year under the title The Political Economy of Art. There were two further editions printed in 1867 and 1868. Then, in 1880, Ruskin added three other short lectures, only the first two of which were strictly relevant to the central themes of the book, and reissued it under its new title. In the preface to the edition of 1880 Ruskin claimed that the original essays contained the substance of all his subsequent social teachings ‘first undertaken systematically and in logical sequence’. This was not an idle claim, although it may not seem obvious to the casual reader. Later writings, such as Unto this Last, can make a more immediate impact because they confront the question of capitalism and its social concerns head on, whereas in A Joy for Ever, Ruskin was concerned with the much more specific question of art and its production in modern times and the wider issues are discussed in this context. The specificity of the book’s theme is probably the chief reason why it attracted less hostile comment from those contemporaries who poured such bitter scorn on the later writings. It is also why it is less well known today. Yet A Joy for Ever merits the attention of anyone with an interest in Ruskin’s thinking, for what it lacks in directness it frequently makes up for in terms of subtlety.
