In this book Woodward goes through the history of several famous ruins, focusing primarily on how they are kept and their impact on artists throughout history. He also goes into the proliferation of fake ruins in England and the concept of "picturesque" in the countryside. His opinoin on allowing ruins to have a balance with nature come up throughout the book but are some what at odds with conservation efforts. I found the book interesting as someone who's never read anything on the topic before but sometimes it could be a little dry. A couple of sections triggered am emotional response but overall the book was somewhat flat. I'm still happy to have read it but probably won't search out books on this topic in the future.