Friday, April 16, 2010

Ruskin


I'm putting out a general begging call.

I've been reading all about John Ruskin, and now I want to read his books. But the chances of finding any of them here in English seem pretty slim.

I'm going to go check out Feltrinelli Internazionale later today. They have a pretty good collection of Penguin Classics and might have him in there.

But if anyone out there in the Anglosphere sees a copy of Modern Painters or Elements of Drawing,

or really anything at all by him about anything,

please consider me. Here. In Italy. Where you can't really get books in English, and there aren't really any good second hand bookshops.

8 comments:

PCM said...

I don't know if/how Google filters by country or how Italian copyright law works, but Google Books has a number of works (US public domain I assume) by him, including those two you mention. E.g., Elements of Drawing. (I see only vols. 2 and 4 of Modern Painters though.) Sorry if this is old news or not applicable. For personal use I've printed a couple old public domain books on my simple inkjet and bound them myself -- and I am no artist.

df said...

Or you could buy 2nd hand copies from Abebooks and have them shipped to you in Santa M.

There are two other bookshops in Rome you might want to try -
The 'Almost Corner Bookshop',
Via del Moro 45 in Trastevere and the 'Anglo American Bookstore' Via delle Vite 102, not far from the Spanish Steps.

Anonymous said...

Those 2 shops aren't really good sources for good books. However, you can find all many of trashy novels and tour guide books there.

-mary ann

HJW said...

MA,

yes, Feltrinelli's: for all your teen vampire romance needs...

HW said...

df...

yes, I could certainly do that if I had a credit card.

Anonymous said...

Too bad you don't have one of these in Rome yet

http://www.ondemandbooks.com/home.htm

but there is one in London, if you've got someone who can do you a favor there, or if you're going back to visit soon. There's going to be one in Alexandria this summer also. - Karen

Anonymous said...

If you're in Italy, you already have more than you deserve. Stop whining.

Hilary Jane Margaret White said...

"finecrown"

have you ever lived in Italy for more than a week?

and you might want to go and examine the commbox rules about using real or plausible-sounding names.