 Ruskin's view of artistic production was central to this conception, and Ruskin's work was so important to Proust that he claimed to know "by heart" several of Ruskin's books, including "The Seven Lamps of Architecture", "The Bible of Amiens", and "Praeterita".Proust set out to translate two of Ruskin's works into French, but was hampered by an imperfect command of English.To compensate for this he made his translations a group affair