Books by Tim Hilton

The book begins in 1859, when Ruskin is tutoring Rose La Touche, a girl of ten, with whom he slowly falls in love. Hilton recounts how this relationship developed into one of the saddest love affairs of literary history, ending in tragedy in 1875. Thereafter, says Hilton, Ruskin' s life was punctuated by bouts of insanity and despair.