Beschreibung:

Autograph letter signed ("JRuskin") to his friend "Mrs Simon" describing his stay in the Alps, writing that he is "always languid towards the end of the day" but in the morning gets "a little Greek and geology done and perhaps some drawing - none well - but yet enough to give some slight sense of progress", he goes on to describe the view from his room and the stupidity of his servant girl Franceline, writing: "I am quite able & willing to "take care" of myself [...] but Franceline is good for nothing - I look upon her simply as on a wax figure [...] she is the stupidest girl, but one, I ever knew - and she's deader than that one, who sometimes said her foolish things with an air. But Franceline has not vitality enough to show off her stupidity". Ruskin closes the letter on an optimistic if meditative note, writing: "every day enlarges the wonder and desolateness of all things to me. My life is nothing but an astonishment - ever increasing...", three pages, mailing folds, tears to upper and lower folds and to lower vertical fold , 8vo, 1 March [1863] ***"I RATHER FAIL IN IDEAS - THAT'S ALL" Ruskin writes to his friend Jane Simon - sending his regards to her husband John and their adopted daughter Boo - and updating them on his activities during his stay in the Alps. The tone of the letter changes from sentence to sentence, perhaps showing Ruskin's restlessness as he tries to make progress with his art.