The Two Paths: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Two Paths, credited to John Ruskin, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of The Two Paths, by John Ruskin. "The Two Paths" is a collection of five lectures delivered in 1858 and 1859 by John Ruskin on art and architecture. This is how the author himself presents the book: "The following addresses, though spoken at different times, are intentionally connected in subject; their aim being to set one or two main principles of art in simple light before the general student, and to indicate their practical bearing on modern design. The law which it has been my effort chiefly to illustrate is the dependence of all noble design, in any kind, on the sculpture or painting of Organic Form." The most famous of these, the fifth lecture, is commonly known simply as "The Work of Iron" (Summary by Leni)

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Two Paths
• Author credits: John Ruskin
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 16
• Listed recording duration: 6:01:44

Catalogue topics

• art
• architecture
• lectures

Track guide

1. 00 - Preface — 7:22
2. 01 - Lecture I, part 1: The Deteriorative Power of Conventional Art Over Nations — 17:35
3. 02 - Lecture I, part 2: The Deteriorative Power of Conventional Art Over Nations — 20:28
4. 03 - Lecture I, part 3: The Deteriorative Power of Conventional Art Over Nations — 29:22
5. 04 - Lecture II, part 1: The Unity of Art — 24:11
6. 05 - Lecture II, part 2: The Unity of Art — 21:13
7. 06 - Lecture III, part 1: Modern Manufacture and Design — 29:15
8. 07 - Lecture III, part 2: Modern Manufacture and Design — 30:20
9. 08 - Lecture IV, part 1: Influence of Imagination in Architecture — 22:12
10. 09 - Lecture IV, part 2: Influence of Imagination in Architecture — 20:00
11. 10 - Lecture IV, part 3: Influence of Imagination in Architecture — 24:16
12. 11 - Lecture V, part 1: The Work of Iron, in Nature, Art and Policy — 22:16
13. 12 - Lecture V, part 2: The Work of Iron, in Nature, Art and Policy — 21:23
14. 13 - Lecture V, part 3: The Work of Iron, in Nature, Art and Policy — 34:48
15. 14 - Appendices, part 1 — 15:23
16. 15 - Appendices, part 2 — 21:46

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.