A Joy For Ever (and Its Price in the Market)

Art, money and public responsibility meet in John Ruskin's two lectures delivered at Manchester in July 1857. He asks what wealth really means and how a community should discover, use, preserve and distribute works of art. The volume includes expanded passages, explanatory notes and additional papers on art education and social policy. Its opening challenges familiar attitudes toward both riches and poverty, treating economic choices as duties shared by citizens.

Ruskin connects the value of art with the conditions under which people work. In his discussion of trade, he proposes active guilds that would help willing workers find employment, set wages and share useful inventions. He also imagines decorated trade halls honouring the contributions of working people. Readers interested in art beyond galleries will find an argument about its place in everyday surroundings, the dignity of skilled labour and the obligations that accompany ownership.