The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

Fülszöveg

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scar (Fingal O'Flahertie Wills) Wilde (1854-1900), was born in Dublin. His father was a brilliant surgeon and his mother a would-be poet. Both parents, by the time Oscar was ten years old, were public figures, having achieved a mixture of fame and notoriety. Their son was a fine scholar and inherited from his parents a brilliance that brought him spectacular success as a writer—and a weakness in his character which led to a public disgrace which a degree more of resolution on his part would have avoided.
Wilde's tragedy, in perspective, is seen as a disgrace of a different kind—that of the British public indulging 'in one of its periodical fits of morality'. Wilde's work lives on—he is appreciated now as never before. The author of the marvellous comedies, of Dorian Gray and The Ballad of Reading Gaol has a secure place in English letters.
This single volume contains all his work, and demonstrates his range as playwright, story-teller, poet and essayist.
London in the early... Tovább

Fülszöveg

o
scar (Fingal O'Flahertie Wills) Wilde (1854-1900), was born in Dublin. His father was a brilliant surgeon and his mother a would-be poet. Both parents, by the time Oscar was ten years old, were public figures, having achieved a mixture of fame and notoriety. Their son was a fine scholar and inherited from his parents a brilliance that brought him spectacular success as a writer—and a weakness in his character which led to a public disgrace which a degree more of resolution on his part would have avoided.
Wilde's tragedy, in perspective, is seen as a disgrace of a different kind—that of the British public indulging 'in one of its periodical fits of morality'. Wilde's work lives on—he is appreciated now as never before. The author of the marvellous comedies, of Dorian Gray and The Ballad of Reading Gaol has a secure place in English letters.
This single volume contains all his work, and demonstrates his range as playwright, story-teller, poet and essayist.
London in the early 1890s boasted no more notorious figure than Oscar Wilde, then at the summit of his fortunes. He was lionised by fashionable society, celebrated throughout the United States and Europe, applauded by theatregoers, critics and the reading public, loved and respected by a host of friends.
Yet in certain influential circles he was hated for the flamboyance and eccentricity of both his private life and public appearances—and all the more cordially detested for being so successful. Private rancour and envy were soon to be stirred up by a hostile press, erupting in a frenzy of popular anger and prejudice, and culminating in disgrace and obscurity—a tragic ending to a brilhant career.
The scandal and furore surrounding the trials and the years in prison have tended to overshadow the real worth of Wilde's achievement, which was prodigious. Though the unique quality of his conversation can never be recaptured, we can still enjoy the tenderness of his poems and fairy tales, the pathos and terror o(Dorian Gray, the acuteness and originaHty of his aesthetic judgments, and above all the sparkhng wit of his comedies.
In this edition, too, appears the long letter written to Lord Alfred Douglas from prison, known as De Profundis—the complete version of which was kept under lock and key as long as the two main actors in this strange drama were alive. Now, with all the suppressed passages restored and seen in proper context, the anguish of Wilde's humiliation is made vividly apparent. And when we assess his work as a whole it is impossible not to feel both admiration and compassion for a man whose full contribution to Hterature is only now being recognised. Vissza