What is a Good Book? – Class 11 English Chapter 25 Notes & NCERT PDF

About the Author

John Ruskin (1819–1900) was a powerful and influential nineteenth-century critic who wrote on nature, art, architecture, politics and history, always with "a clarity of vision". His first volume, Modern Painters, appeared in 1843; his works of social criticism include Unto this Last (1862) and *Sesame and Lilies* (1871), from which this extract is taken; his ideas on architecture appear in The Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849) and The Stones of Venice (1853). Sesame and Lilies consists mainly of two essays written as public lectures delivered in 1864.

Summary

1. Books of the hour vs. books of all time

Ruskin first describes "the good book of the hour" — "simply the useful or pleasant talk of some person whom you cannot otherwise converse with, printed for you." Travel accounts, witty discussions, novels, and fact-telling by participants in recent events are all useful and pleasant, and "a peculiar characteristic and possession of the present age". We should be thankful for them, but we make "the worst possible use" of them if we let them usurp the place of true books, for "strictly speaking, they are not books at all but merely letters or newspapers in good print."

2. What a true 'Book' is

"A book is essentially not a talked thing but a written thing; and written, not with the view of mere communication, but of permanence."

A book of talk is printed only because the author cannot speak to thousands at once — mere "multiplication" of voice. A letter is mere "conveyance" of voice. But a true book is written to preserve the voice. The author has something he perceives to be "true and useful, or helpfully beautiful", which, so far as he knows, no one else has said or can say. He would "fain set it down forever, engrave it on a rock", saying:

"This is the best of me; for the rest, I ate, and drank, and slept, loved, and hated, like another… but this I saw and knew; this, if anything, of mine, is worth your memory."

"That is his 'writing'… his inscription, or scripture. That is a 'Book'." Every wise person's honest and benevolent work is his book, mixed with "evil fragments"; if you read rightly, you will find the true bits.

3. The company of the Dead

Great books by great leaders, statesmen and thinkers are "all at your choice; and life is short." Ruskin asks whether we will "gossip with your housemaid, or your stable-boy, when you may talk with queens and kings"? This "eternal court" of great writers is always open to us. But it differs from living aristocracy: it is "open to labour and to merit but to nothing else." "No wealth will bribe, no name will overawe, no artifice will deceive the guardian of those Elysian gates." The dead say:

"If you will not rise to us, we cannot stoop to you… you must rise to the level of our thoughts if you would be gladdened by them."

4. How to read — love, humility, labour

5. The gold-mining metaphor

Nature does not carry gold to the mountain tops; she puts it "in little fissures in the earth". Reading a good book, ask: "Am I inclined to work as an Australian miner would?" The author's meaning is the metal; his words are the rock you must "crush and smelt"; your pickaxes are "your own care, wit and learning"; your smelting furnace is "your own thoughtful soul".

6. Accuracy with words

You must look intensely at words "syllable by syllable—nay, letter by letter." You could read all the books in the British Museum and remain "utterly 'illiterate'", but if you read ten pages of a good book letter by letter, you become in some measure educated. Education (intellectually) consists in accuracy. An educated person may know few languages but knows precisely what he knows — "learned in the peerage of words", able to tell words "of true descent and ancient blood" from "words of modern canaille". A false Latin quantity rightly excites a smile in the House of Commons, but "it is wrong that a false English meaning should not excite a frown there." "Words, if they are not watched, will do deadly work sometimes."

Themes

Literary Devices & Style (a lecture)

Word Power

Exam Focus

Q. What are the limitations of the good book of the hour?

Outline: useful/pleasant talk printed; like letters or newspapers in good print; written for communication, not permanence; must not usurp the place of true books.

Q. Why is reading a good author a painstaking task?

Outline: wise men hide deeper thoughts, give them as reward; like gold in fissures — must dig; words are rock to be crushed and smelted with care, wit, learning and a thoughtful soul.

Q. What emphasis does Ruskin place on accuracy?

Outline: look at words letter by letter; ten pages read accurately educate more than all the British Museum read carelessly; education = accuracy; watch meanings more than accents; words can do deadly work.

Common Mistakes