Amazon.com
Richard Ellmann capped an illustrious career in biography (his James Joyce is considered one of the masterpieces of the 20th century) with this life of Oscar Wilde, which won both the National Book Critics Circle Award and Pulitzer Prize on its original publication in 1988. Ellmann's account of Wilde's extravagantly operatic life as poet, playwright, aesthete, and martyr to sexual morality is notable not only for the full portrait it gives of Wilde, but also for Ellmann's assessment of his subject's literary greatness; both aims are served by a plethora of quotations from Wilde's own work and correspondence. Wilde straddled the line between the Victorian age and the modern world as he did everything in life ... with impeccable style.
Book Description
The biography sensitive to the tragic pattern of the story of a great subject: Oscar Wilde - psychologically and sexually complicated, enormously quotable, central to a alluring cultural world and someone whose life assumed an unbearably dramatic shape.
Customer Reviews:
TO KNOW WILDE, KNOW HIS MOTHER.......2006-08-12
Just as to know James Joyce, discover his daughter, the spark of his own genius.
Lady Wilde was a writer and Irish revolutionary who raised her son to infiltrate the highest ranks of the empire and expose their foibles, faults, cruelties and hidden shames, which he so fully did through his theatre work and other writings. He was investigating the widespread homosexuality of the British aristocracy when he was arested for his prying and blamed for that which he himself investigated and reported. He was silenced through breaking imprisonment (read his post-prison poetry, and the uneven yet revelatory De Profundis written from prison) which debilitated, discouraged and killed him a few short years after his release.
TO know Wilde, know his mother: Speranza, Lady Wilde, whose wonderful works of Irish history and legends are now available on amazon.com only in Spanish translation. Several good biographies are also available at unattainable price.
Know alos his son. Wilde was a loving family man who wrote wonderful bedtime stories for his own beloved children. What broke him in prison was losing them, as he writes in De Profundis.
Ellman's is a fine biography. Find out far more about Wilde than the popular and shallow slander urgently promoted by the Empire
scholarly yet stimulating.......2004-07-09
I remember reading this book when I was 16 and being blown away by the erudition. Even to this day it's probably the most erudite biography I've ever read. The scholarly weight and depth of this book is tremendous. It is amazingly comprehensive. This is the kind of book that takes 20 years to write and must be a labor of love for the writer--the writer must really love his subject, in this case, Wilde. And one has every indication from the book that Richard Ellman did. His portrait of Wilde is no less sympathetic as it is complete. This must be the definitive biography which all other Wilde bios should be measured against. A superlative achievement.
David Rehak
author of "A Young Girl's Crimes"
Utterly Moving.......2004-02-05
I had just finished this book ten minutes ago and I am completely in love with the man. His life was one of both tragedy and creativity. I felt so sad for him in the last part of his life. He was an amazing soul and this bio accented it. A must read!
Likely to stand as the definitive biography of Wilde.......2002-10-14
If Richard Ellmann had not already written the definitive literary biography (his astonishing JAMES JOYCE), this utterly first-rate biography would be a legitimate candidate for the title. One might initially think that Wilde would be an easy subject for a biography: his life was interesting, eventful, literarily significant, triumphant, and tragic. But the problem is that for many Wilde has become a symbol either of the late 19th century Victorian decadence or the oppressed homosexual. To treat anyone, and especially Wilde, primarily as a symbol or a representative of anything outside himself, is to distort and misrepresent. The genius of Ellmann's biography of Wilde is that Wilde never becomes either more or less than the writer and person Oscar Wilde.
The portrait that emerges of Wilde is absolutely fascinating. If Ellmann's JAMES JOYCE is the greater biography, Wilde emerges nonetheless as the more interesting of the two Irish authors, and perhaps the more brilliant, if not the more productive. Indeed, one of the things that emerges from Ellmann's book is a sense that Wilde might have become a greater writer than he did, and not just if he had not sued the Marquess of Queensbury and had not been sent to prison on sodomy charges. Wilde emerges as even more brilliant than the work he produced, as if he had produced much of his work with a minimum of reference.
Ellmann does a marvelous job of situation Wilde in his time and place, with the cultural and artistic concerns paramount at the time. He also does a fair and just job of depicting the major involvements in his life, beginning with Whistler and his wife Constance and continuing on with his various involvements, especially with Alfred Lord Douglas. With the latter, Ellmann certainly does not try to idealize the relationship, but recounts it warts and all. If there is a villain in the book, it is not, surprisingly, the Marquess of Queensbury, but his son Lord Douglas.
The saddest part of the book, by far, is the section recounting Wilde's life after leaving prison, which is one disappointment after another. He first intended to reunite and reconcile with his wife, but she unexpectedly died, thereby cutting himself off from both a family and his children. He then reunites uncomfortably with Lord Douglas, but the attempt is a disaster. He final year or two are recounted as being especially miserable, with an impoverished Wilde reduced to conversing entertainingly with strangers for the benefit of a drink. It is especially heartbreaking to read how almost all his former friends cut him off, refusing to help him in his time of greatest need. An encounter with a young man from Arkansas provides perhaps the most apt Wilde quote from his last days. Upon hearing about Arkansas, Wilde remarked, "I would like to flee like a wounded hart into Arkansas."
One learns a vast amount of fascinating biographical detail about Wilde's life from this book. For instance: Wilde was double-jointed, could speed read and knock off books in scarcely more than a half hour in some instances. He was acquainted with the Yeats family in Ireland, and spoke with a pronounced Irish accent until he went to Oxford. He bought Thomas Carlyle's writing desk. He was a Mason. Physically he had tiny feet and teeth that were darkened by mercury treatments. And there is much, much more.
On nearly every level, this is a truly great biography. Even if one is not a fan of Wilde's works, it is definitely worth reading.
A Must-Read For Wilde Fans.......2002-07-01
Oscar Wilde was a man of paradoxes, both a man completely of his time and ahead of his time. He is also one of the most interesting, and tragic, literary figures of all-time. In our age of "information quick" (though it was the same in his own age), Wilde is often misunderstood (both his life and his works.) It's easy to get a one-sided version of Wilde the writer, or Wilde the man. That is why this extremely well-written, Pulitzer Prize-winning, masterpiece of a biography is absolutely essential for the Wilde scholar or the Wilde fan. Ellman skillfully avoids what he could've so easily done, and what so many other have done: write a sensational, tabloidistic account of Wilde's remarkable and scandalous life. Instead, he carefully, skillyfully - and, not least important, lovingly - assembles a neat balance between the sensational elements of Wilde's remarkable life and his literary legacy. Wilde, whose works are often dismissed (despite being probably the most widely quoted source in the world outside of The Bible and Shakespeare, and despite having his works widely and frequently plagarized) because of his lifestyle, and Ellman thankfully gives him his due here. Thanks to people like Ellman, Wilde's literary works rest now, finally, where they are due: at the top of the pantheon. He also goes a long way towards explaining the underlying motives behind Wilde's seemingly self-conscious descent into oblivion. Wilde, to the casual observer, seems almost to have been on a deliberate mission of artistic and personal suicide, and Ellman goes a long way here towards explaining his motives. As Wilde himself said, his life itself was his greatest work of art - it's very moving and incredibly tragic to watch his spectacular meteoric rise and even more spectacular fall, leading into his amazing decline, disgrace, and exile. One of the most famous men of his time in the 1890's, it's incredible to see how totally Wilde was shunned after his imprisonment. However, with the passage of more than a century - in which tolerance has made great bounds, both for gays and for the expulsion of literary censorship - Wilde's star can hardly be said to have ever shined brighter. Every year brings a new movie adaptation of one his plays (a movie of this book was even made a few years ago), his plays are still being staged, and his books are still widely read and discussed - not to mention that he is one of the most widely quoted invididuals in the English language. One may still well question Wilde's wanton ways and his decision to face the music, even when it was obvious and inevitable that he was going to lose both his reputation and possibly his life - but remember only what one W.B. Yeats has said of Wilde: "I never for a moment thought that he made the wrong decision" - Wilde, who lavished and delighted in pointing out the hypocrisy of his age and society won the right, by submitting to it, to critize it more. Now, a hundred years on, Wilde - poet, playwright, wit, and martyr to sexual mores - stands as tall as ever, a huge, larger-than-life, towering figure, his wit remaining, as Ellman says, "an agent of renewal."
Average customer rating:
- great book, minor flaws
- The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Essential Classic
- A favorite
- Wonderful collection of brilliant writing
- An interesting story
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The Picture of Dorian Gray and Other Writings (Enriched Classics)
Oscar Wilde
Manufacturer: Pocket
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Binding: Mass Market Paperback
 Wilde, Oscar
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ASIN: 1416500278 |
Book Description
ENDURING LITERATURE ILLUMINATED
BY PRACTICAL SCHOLARSHIP
The classic Gothic tale of horror that explores the pleasures and dangers of a life of decadence.
EACH ENRICHED CLASSIC EDITION INCLUDES:
• A concise introduction that gives readers important background information
• A chronology of the author's life and work
• A timeline of significant events that provides the book's historical context
• An outline of key themes and plot points to help readers form their own interpretations
• Detailed explanatory notes
• Critical analysis, including contemporary and modern perspectives on the work
• Discussion questions to promote lively classroom and book group interaction
• A list of recommended related books and films to broaden the reader's experience
Enriched Classics offer readers affordable editions of great works of literature enhanced by helpful notes and insightful commentary. The scholarship provided in Enriched Classics enables readers to appreciate, understand, and enjoy the world's finest books to their full potential.
SERIES EDITED BY CYNTHIA BRANTLEY JOHNSON
Customer Reviews:
great book, minor flaws.......2006-11-07
First off, for the audience looking to read this book after viewing the character from the movie LXG, know that the characteristics of Dorian are no as they were in the movie. Dorian does not die when he looks at his portrait; in fact his observation of the changes in his picture is one of the main elements of the story. Basil, an artist that is obsessed with the beauty of one man, Dorian, paints a portrait so beautiful that the subject is pained by the fact that the portrait's beauty will outlast that of his mortal body, and he wishes that this formula could be reversed, with the portrait aging in his place. He gets his wish, but at what price? Dorian, now free from the bounds of mortality, is no longer afraid to sin, since there he thinks that nothing can happen to him. But his behavior was not all due to his immortality; it was also due to the fact that the negative influence from Lord Henry corrupted his pure soul. The fact that he was able to keep his beauty but not able to keep his soul shows that judgment based on appearance is not only wrong, but inaccurate. This book is recommended, but not to the highest extent. The story picks up quickly, as it must with such a limited amount of pages. One of the only flaws in this book is chapter 11, the long, unwanted pause. A classic nonetheless, one that should no be overlooked.
The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Essential Classic.......2006-11-05
The Picture of Dorian Gray is one of the greatest books of our time. It is over one hundred years old, but has aged gracefully and is still easily understood and as relevant to matters of life now as it was when it was first published. Though there have been many imitations of it and many film depictions of it, none of them do justice to the real thing. This timeless classic follows the development of a teenager, Dorian Gray, into manhood as the people that he calls his friends corrupt his soul. This is symbolized in a portrait that Gray hides, which was painted by the man who was perhaps his only good-hearted friend, Basil, who later met his untimely demise. Along with the exceptional plot and surprising twist at the end comes the message that Oscar Wilde cunningly imparts to the reader: One must be master of oneself because outside influences often disfigure one down to the deepest part of their soul. On top of all this, the book is also simply well written and entertaining. It is enjoyable because Wilde uses his mastery of everything from satire to suspense to convey his message and an extraordinarily compelling plot to the reader. You should read this book if you are looking for new knowledge, literature with a deep message, or simply a good time. This edition is especially helpful because it has a glossary for the meanings of some older words and supplementary reading written by Oscar Wilde.
A favorite.......2006-05-26
This book is one of my favorites. I love The Picture of Dorian Gray, and also was amazed by "The Ballad of Reading Gaul"
Wonderful collection of brilliant writing.......2006-05-16
This is the version I read while first discovering the many talents of Oscar Wilde. Dorian Gray is captivating, though the actual storyline is not intricate. The descriptions are extraordinary and left me wondering why he hadn't written more novels? Very short, very effective. It is inconcievable to think that Wilde was denounced for this book being immoral as it is really quite moral, considering the consequences of Dorian's behaviour. (He once commented that there never was an immoral or moral book, simply badly written or well-written) For insight into Oscar Wilde's very colourful life, pick up a copy of Richard Elmann's biography; it is not a happy read but very readable nonetheless.
An interesting story.......2005-11-15
The beginning and end of this book were fairly interesting, we get to see Dorian Gray first as a young man (a child essentially) and how he was poked and prodded into becoming the man we see at the end of the book. The middle is somewhat lacking, and I completely lost interest for almost a month before picking the book back up and finishing the story.
The story is essentially that of a man who sells his soul for something petty, namely, beauty and about the downfall of not only the main character but also those whom he encounters in his life. It is an interesting story, but I feel that the story could have been written better and become somewhat of a mystery novel. Instead of revealing Dorian's secret at the moment he discovers it, it would have been fun to leave the reader guessing as to why Dorain was so afraid to let others see the great picture of himself, and perhaps delve into the inner turmoil of Dorian a bit more before the conclusion.
I have only read the story once, but in future readings I'm sure this story will become more intriguing.
Amazon.com
Since the 1960s, when his work gained a new recognition in the literary canon, biographies of Oscar Wilde and critical analysis of his work have become commonplace. While this writing acknowledged the "fact" of Wilde's homosexuality, it did not, for the most part, explore the complexity of the impact it had upon his life and work. This is remedied in Neil Bartlett's Who Was That Man?, which squarely places Wilde in a gay historical context and literary tradition.
Neil Bartlett--an openly gay British novelist, critic and leading innovator on the British stage--has produced the one of the most remarkable books ever written on Wilde. Who Was That Man? is a personal meditation on Wilde's work and the relevance of the artist and playwright in the contemporary world. Bartlett uses his own experience as a gay man to understand Wilde's life and manages--through extensive historical research and evocative language--to make observations and connections and illuminate our understanding of the writer and his place in his own world and ours.
Customer Reviews:
The Wilde Side.......2000-02-04
A gay Londoner of the 80s goes searching for his roots and finds Oscar Wilde, a complex figure early on in the history of the cultural and social construction of twentieth-century homosexuality. If you're interested in Wilde, this is a very good book to read along with Richard Ellman's more standard biography.
Average customer rating:
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CliffsNotes Importance of Being Earnest
Susan Van Kirk
Manufacturer: John Wiley & Sons
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ASIN: 0764544616 |
Book Description
The original CliffsNotes study guides offer a look into critical elements and ideas within classic works of literature. The latest generation of titles in this series also feature glossaries and visual elements that complement the classic, familiar format.
CliffsNotes on The Importance of Being Earnest offers a concise look at this Victorian farce, which tweaks the complacency and aristocratic attitudes prevalent among the wealthy upper class of the time. Hidden identities, fierce repartee, underlying passions, and surprises punctuate this lively play.
This study guide shows, through its expert commentaries, just how three sets of lovers clear up mishap and misunderstandings and end up happily ever after. Other features that help you figure out this survey of Victorian social issues include
- A close look at the author's life, which itself was rife with scandal and ruin
- Summaries and commentaries, act by act
- Descriptive character analyses
- A character map that reveal key relationships
- Critical essays on Victorian views on compassion, religion, marriage, and more
- A review section that tests your knowledge, and suggested essay topics
Classic literature or modern-day treasure — you'll understand it all with expert information and insight from CliffsNotes study guides.
Customer Reviews:
Practically Useless.......2007-01-13
When I told my mom that we were reading The Importance of Being Earnest in our English class, she thought it would be a good idea to pick up the Cliff Notes for me to study. I appreciate the guesture, but it was completely unncecessary.
The play itself is only about 80 pages long, just 10 pages more than the Cliff Notes. So don't expect to save any time by reading Cliff Notes instead of the play.
Also, the play isn't really that confusing at all. There are only a handful of characters and the dialouge is not hard to understand (though it isn't written in a modern dialect). While reading this play (I finished it in one night), I never once was confused or lost.
Cliff Notes can be useful for long, boring, confusing works such as The Scarlet Letter. But something as short and simple as The Importance of Being Earnest stands fine on it's own. Skip the Cliff Notes and just read the play. It's actually pretty funny and you'll probably enjoy it. I did.
Average customer rating:
- Thin book, fat wits!
- Unparalleled Wit & Wisdom
- Thin small and funny
- Oscar Wilde is a Genius
|
Oscar Wilde's Wit and Wisdom: A Book of Quotations (Dover Thrift Editions)
Oscar Wilde
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
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ASIN: 0486401464 |
Book Description
Epigrams, aphorisms, and other bon mots gathered from the celebrated wit's plays, essays, and conversation offer an entertaining selection of observations both comic and profound. Organized by category, the nearly 400 quotes range in subject from human nature, morals, and society to art, politics, history, and more.
Customer Reviews:
Thin book, fat wits!.......2007-10-18
This sweet little book is full of Oscar Wilde's great little quips. I absolutely love it! I keep it next to my desk and pick it up for those sweet little chuckle breaks that we all must take to break up the dreary work day! Great little read! Promise!
Unparalleled Wit & Wisdom.......2002-12-01
"I can resist everything except temptation."
"There is no sin except stupidity."
"It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances."
"It is always with the best intentions that the worst work is done."
These laconic aphorisms are just the tip of the iceberg of Wilde's impressive, yet oftentimes eclectic and nihilistic, use of the English language. Dover gives us 60 pages of brilliant witticisms and axioms to use over and over again for a mere dollar. You can't go wrong. Also recommended - Dover's Shakespeare quotes book for a dollar. Enjoy.
Thin small and funny.......2002-01-11
Everyone knows OW was a witty guy.
If you want to find witty things he said in one small book such that you can try to emulate his wit, this book is for you.
It's good for an hour's read where you will snicker, snort, and grin.
It's exactly what i expected and exactly what I got. Whee!
Oscar Wilde is a Genius.......2000-03-27
This collection of Wilde's greatest quotes is an easy read, and wonderful to keep around the house. Wilde's wisdom is displayed throughout this edition, and is a must have for any Wilde fan.
Book Description
This authoritative edition was formerly published in the acclaimed Oxford Authors series under the general editorship of Frank Kermode. It brings together a unique combination of Wilde's poetry and prose short stories, plays, critical dialogues and his only novel - to give the essence of his work and thinking. Oscar Wilde's dramatic private life has sometimes threatened to overshadow his great literary achievements. His talent was prodigious: the author of brilliant social comedies, fairy stories, critical dialogues, poems, and a novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. In addition to Dorian Gray, this volume represents all these genres, including such works as Lady Windermere's Fan and The Importance of Being Earnest, 'The Happy Prince', 'The Critic as Artist', and 'The Ballad of Reading Gaol'.
Amazon.com
She was lovely, sophisticated, and famous for her witty conversation, even in a social circle that was known for its fabulous talkers. The only child of Oscar Wilde's dissipated older brother Willie, Dolly Wilde (1895-1941) led a life as scandalous and glittering as her uncle's: she, too, loved her own sex, and her longest romantic relationship was with American heiress Natalie Clifford Barney, who was host of the most important Parisian literary salon of the 20th century. Unfortunately for Dolly's posthumous reputation, she "was an artist of the spoken word" whose only written legacy was her marvelous correspondence. Quoting liberally and perceptively from those letters, American playwright Joan Schenkar brings Wilde to life in a modernist biography that is written in prose as sparkling as Dolly's fabled bons mots. Schenkar eschews conventional chronology to consider Wilde's life thematically, from her lesbianism to her taste for smart society to her self-destructive identification with Uncle Oscar. She reminds us just how remarkable and accomplished were the women at Barney's salon (journalist Janet Flanner, novelist Djuna Barnes, and artist Mina Loy, among them) and how much they esteemed Dolly Wilde. Yet, her biographer downplays neither Wilde's addiction to drugs nor the sad loneliness of her death (possibly from a drug overdose) at age 45. This is essentially a tale of "squandered gifts and lost opportunities," Schenkar acknowledges, but she successfully provokes readers to share her admiration for Wilde's prodigal generosity with both her talent and her affections. --Wendy Smith
Book Description
For sixty years she was a delicious rumor: Oscar Wilde's enchanting niece Dorothy. Born a scant three months after her uncle's notorious arrest and raised in the shadow of the greatest scandal of the turn of the 20th Century, Dorothy Ierne Wilde died exactly as she lived: vividly, rather violently, and at a very good address.
A "born writer" who never completed the creative life promised by her famous name and gorgeous imagination, Dolly Wilde was charged with charm, brilliantly witty, changeable as refracting light, and loaded with sexual allure. She made her career in the salonsand in the bedroomsof some of London's and Paris' most interesting women and men. Attracting people of taste and talent wherever she went, she drenched her prodigious talents in liquids and chemicals, burnt up her opportunities in flamboyant affairs, and created continuous sensations by the ways in which she seemed to be re-living the life of her infamous uncle.
In this revolutionary and very modern biography, Joan Schenkar provides a fascinating look at what it means to live with the talents but not the achievements of biography's usual subjects: those obliterating "winners"like Dolly's uncle Oscarwhose stories have almost erased riveting histories like Dolly's own. And she uncovers never-before-published evidence of the hidden life of the Wilde family and of the extraordinary salon society of Natalie Clifford Barney, Dolly Wilde's longest and most fatal attachment.
"At last, an in-depth portrait of the 'Beautiful Loser of the Wilde family,' a brilliant eccentric whom Janet Flanner rightly described as 'like a character out of a book.' Anyone interested in modernism, gender-bending and/or expatriate Paris will be enthralled by Joan Schenkar's penetrating and often poignant biography of a woman strangely charismatic and witty enough to be 'truly Wilde.'" Sandra M. Gilbert, co-author of The Madwoman in the Attic and No Man's Land
"Truly Wilde is a revelation, the great story of a life and of the creation of modern culture. Read this biography for its high drama, its hijinks, and, at the end, for its poignancy and horror." Catharine R. Stimpson, author and Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Science, New York University
"Joan Schenkar has lifted a veil to reveal a sophisticated, overheated lesbian world in Paris in the first decades of the twentieth century. At the center is Oscar Wilde's niece Dollyself-destructive, self-dramatizing, magnetic. This is a great story, beautifully told." Edmund White
"A touching portrait of a louche, lush and lascivious lady who makes today's alleged It Girls look like the vapid paper-dolls they areand a vivid picture of a time when, incredibly, the wealthy and titled were also witty and talented." Julie Burchill, columnist for The Guardian
Customer Reviews:
meaning without words...a wisp of a shadow.......2004-07-02
How do you relate the life of someone who never stepped forward from the shadows of her disgraced uncle, Oscar Wilde? Someone who sparkled like a thousand shards of a broken mirror on a sunlit day?
Dolly was a wisp of a shadow, mesmerizing, bewitching permanently etching herself into onto one's memory with her mere presence. Those who knew her well, Janet Flanner, Natalie Barney, Honey Harris - true wordsmiths all- struggled to explain her enigmatic aura. Captivating, enchanting - adjectives repeated over and over in a vain attempt to eplain her effect on all she met.
Her magic was her brilliant conversation, her charming turn of phrase, the impermanence of flowing dialogue that she wouldn't or couldn't commit to paper. She lived and died in 'The Moment' nothing else mattered. Her flame burned bright and then was gone - a willing(?) or fated victim to excesses she could not (and would not) control and the ravages of a body aged long before its time. Suicide? accident? Murder? The myth and truth of 'Wilde' consumed her all the same.
This biography isn't linear because Dolly didn't live her life linearly. Her life was moments of sight and sound and fury that the author captures completely.
How do you truly explain the unexplainable? This book is at it's best a series of half glimpses, whispered hints, or even dim reflections in mirrors (Dolly hated mirrors)of someone so busy 'living in the moment' that after that glorious moment she was gone with only the faint trace of pleasure and grace.
And somehow all that works and works well, this book recreates her life so much more then a dry recording of droning facts could ever capture of such a glorious spirit. No such dullness For Dolly Wilde! I highly recommend this book.
Truly Milde.......2004-05-28
In the spirit of Schenkar's grasping at straws to add pages to her book, I'd like to provide a recipe of my own:
How to Bore and Infuriate a Reader
Take 1 very interesting character
Add vast amounts of filler and repetition
Lard with half-baked postmodern theory
Heap in generous amounts of self-satisfaction
Infer that you've egregiously taken advantage of Nathalie Barney's elderly and generous housekeeper
Stir it all up with bad prose.
Half-bake and serve forth to an unsuspecting audience.
A wildly brilliant biography.......2003-01-29
With "Truly Wilde," author Joan Schenkar has reinterpreted and redefined the possibilities of the biographical form. Her strategy in recreating the world of Parisian intellectual and artistic salons in which Oscar Wilde's niece Dolly flourished in the 1920s - most notably Natalie Barney's Academie des Femmes - is stunningly iconoclastic, deeply compelling, and brilliantly written. From a base of scrupulous and capacious research, from interviews with primary sources and access to original documents, illustrated with a fascinating array of photographs, Schenkar uses a thematic rather than chronological approach to bring Dolly Wilde and her world to life, and to follow with fierce attention the course of her descent to a lonely death in London at the age of 45. Ms. Schenkar does not feel bound by academic niceties. Her book is rich in the odd detail - a palm reading, for instance, or a favorite recipe - that make that era and those brilliant characters as luminous as real life. In her hands, Dolly Wilde becomes a memorable and ultimately mysterious force of nature.
For The Intelligent Reader.......2003-01-20
There is nothing like pleasure to motivate a book review and I took an enormous pleasure in reading -- and then in instantly re-reading - TRULY WILDE. This book gives such a precise and poetic view of the seductive and fascinating Dolly Wilde and such a generously ducumented look at the period in which she flourished -- a period in which conversation was still an art and identity was something that could still be invented - that you really feel yourself feeling with and for Dolly. It's an exemplary, inventive biography. And the photographs are wonderful.
Truly Wilde assumes that its readers delight in language and ideas and bring to it a certain intelligence. I presume that this refreshing approach accounts for the stellar reviews on the book jacket by such brilliant writers as Jeannette Winterson and Edmund White; I presume that it also accounts for the few, suspiciously vitriolic comments found on this site - which seem to be motivated by something other than a desire to share an opinion.
I HIGHLY recommend TRULY WILDE to all lovers of pleasure who like to think: this book, this life will reward you a thousand times over.
A disaster.......2003-01-13
This is without a doubt the worst book I have ever read. The author's cohorts seem to have agreed upon "experimental" as the operative descriptor for this abomination. In these tedious pages, however, "experimental" means only this: bad research, no facts, meandering/aimless prose, lack of direction, and disorganization. Oh, yes, how could I forget? It also means enormous amounts of filler at the end, including recipes and a handprint analysis-all, no doubt, in an attempt to meet contractual obligations to the publisher for a page count.
Don't take my word for it. Read the New York Times book review that appeared when this book was first published. It was written by a well-known lesbian feminist, and one would expect the reviewer to be sympathetic. Instead, she ripped this book to shreds. Deservedly so, in my opinion.
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Oscar Wilde (Bloom's Modern Critical Views)
Manufacturer: Chelsea House Publications
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Book Description
Oscar Wilde engages and fascinates his readers with his ability to make use of compatible contraries. Study some of his most important works, including The Importance of Being Earnest and Salome.
This title, Oscar Wilde, part of Chelsea House Publishers' Modern Critical Views series, examines the major works of Oscar Wilde through full-length critical essays by expert literary critics. In addition, this title features a short biography on Oscar Wilde, a chronology of the author's life, and an introductory essay written by Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities, Yale University.
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- "Between Me and Life There is A Mist of Words Always"
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The Wit & Wisdom of Oscar Wilde
Ralph Keyes
Manufacturer: Gramercy
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Oscar Wilde's Wit and Wisdom: A Book of Quotations (Dover Thrift Editions)
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Complete Works of Oscar Wilde (Collins Classics)
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Oscar Wilde
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The Complete Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde
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The Secret Life Of Oscar Wilde
ASIN: 0517194600
Release Date: 1999-11-23 |
Book Description
Wilde on Sincerity: "A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal." Nearly a century after his death, the wit of Oscar Wilde remains as fresh and barbed as ever. This collection of his works, letters, reviews, anecdotes and repartee is ample proof of this iconoclast's enduring place in the world of arts and letters.
Customer Reviews:
"Between Me and Life There is A Mist of Words Always".......2003-08-09
Oscar Wilde once said "Drama is the meeting place of art and life." In this essential, compact volume Ralph Keyes leaves a trail to that corner by gathering the flamboyant author's thorniest, at times most insightful quotes and anecdotes. Keyes uses Wilde's plays, reviews, letters, interrogations, even conversational repartee (given its own section) which remained Wilde's signature to his time.
Keyes divides Wilde's epigrams and puns into brief, easily readable sections. Wilde twists traditional views on permanent truths and those of his day: altruism ("Charity creates a multitude of sins.") history ("History is merely gossip.") theology, poverty, dissent ("Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation.")
Above all, Wilde (through Keyes' selections) quips and dissects each of the fine arts (music, prose, painting) and roles for creator, viewer, interpreter. He addresses the writer ("Even prophets correct their proofs.") critic ("Criticism is the highest form of autobiography"), and artist ("Like the Greek gods, artists are known only to each other.")
Amid his fast-paced one liners on male-female relations you sense how Wilde viewed marriage over and above his well-known bromide, "Divorces are made in heaven." The book ends with Wilde explaining and defending the homosexual relationship he called "the love that dare not speak its name". Whether or not you accept Wilde's lifestyle preferences, his eloquent, sad defense of a letter he wrote a younger man is moving as he describes the unique merge of intellect and youthful energy which to him formed "the noblest sort of affection." It is as close to heartfelt as anyone could get who once said, "A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal."
Oscar Wilde was parodied, villified, and eventually imprisoned for his beliefs and flamboyance. But he eventually influenced artists from George Bernard Shaw to John Lennon, staking a claim as the earliest example of a postmodern artist. This book helps introduce Wilde's full books and plays (Keyes references them consistently and provides a full bibliography), or helps you reference witty, intellectual (or psuedo-intellectual, as Wilde might have preferred) quotes for any occassion. (As to plagarizing, Wilde himself called it, "the privilege of the appreciative man.") His full literary courses are nutritious and filling enough, but "The Wit and Wisdom of Oscar Wilde" is as savory when reading or writing as salt is when dining.
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- Partying and Good times and thoughtless happy endings... satirically?
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The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays (Enriched Classics)
Oscar Wilde
Manufacturer: Pocket
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No Exit and Three Other Plays
ASIN: 1416500421 |
Book Description
Enduring Literature Illuminated by Practical Scholarship
Wilde's classic comedy of manners, The Importance of Being Earnest, and his other popular plays -- Lady Windermere's Fan, An Ideal Husband, and Salome -- challenged comtemporary notions of sex and sensibility, class and cultural identity.
This Enriched Classic Edition includes:
• A concise introduction that gives readers important background information
• A chronology of the author's life and work
• A timeline of significant events that provides the book's historical context
• An outline of key themes and plot points to help readers form their own interpretations
• Detailed explanatory notes
• Critical analysis, including contemporary and modern perspectives on the work
• Discussion questions to promote lively classroom and book group interaction
• A list of recommended related books and films to broaden the reader's experience
Enriched Classics offer readers affordable editions of great works of literature enhanced by helpful notes and insightful commentary. The scholarship provided in Enriched Classics enables readers to appreciate, understand, and enjoy the world's finest books to their full potential.
Series edited by Cynthia Brantley Johnson
Customer Reviews:
Partying and Good times and thoughtless happy endings... satirically? .......2006-07-18
This fellow gives new meaning to irreverence and "farce".
His views on the virtues of having a satirically empty head
as written by one appears to be the well written best example?
His characterization of the English upper class as both idle
and clueless came too close to the truth.
Yet he mostly has happy endings and a good laugh for all.
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