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And all men kill the thing they love
By all let it be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look.
Some with a flattering word.
The coward does it with a kiss.
The brave man with a sword!
--from "The Ballad of Reading Gaol"

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And blood and wine were on his hands When they found him with the dead, The poor dead woman whom he loved, And murdered in her bed. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Brilliant poem, but a poor editing job
The Ballad of Reading Gaol is truly a fascinating poem.Wilde's valorization of the tragic murderer, "...each man kills the thing he loves... the kindest use a knife because the dead so soon grow cold", provides a poignant commentary on the transience of love.However, this book is marred by what seem to be terrible typos: "But their were those amongst us all..." "And knew that, had each go his due..." "Mad mourners of a corse!"I haven't read any of the other versions of this poem, and can't tell you if they're better, but for the extra money this costs, I expected more from the publisher.Five stars for the poem, but only one for the presentation because of its errors.

One of poetry's great masterpieces
Essential for any lover of great poetry, and certainly for any fan of Oscar Wilde is his great poem, "The Ballad of Reading Gaol." Scarcely the only thing he wrote after his return from his notorious 2-year prison term, The Ballad of Reading Gaol is a moving and tragic account of one man's suffering. One could go on and on - writing hundreds of pages in essay form - about the indignities and injustices of prison life, but this goes toward saying it much better than any ivory tower intellectual argument ever could. Wilde, winner of the infamous Newdigate Prize For Poetry at Oxford University, had long been an immaculate poet - an a born writer - but he practically anandoned the form after his marriage and the start of his career as a playwright in the early 1890's (aside from that strange amalgram of a poem, The Sphinx.) And yet, this is almost exclusively the only thing Wilde wrote after his release before his untimely death in 1900. Thankfully, the great artist went out with a bang. The Ballad fuses some of the best and clearest writing I have ever read in the English language with a poetic sensibility and a true and tragic sense of real suffering, thereby creating one of the great poems of all-time.

Many anthologies of Wilde's writings are available, and perhaps buying a book that simply includes this lone poem is questionable. I definitely suggest that you go for a Complete Works if you are new to the author; however, if you'd like a travel-worthy copy of certain smaller works - such as this poem - then editions such as this will serve you well. Besides, this edition has as well those beautiful paintings to go along with it - something I'm sure Oscar himself would've loved.

Key readingforWilde enthusiast
As a student of Wilde'slife and works, I find this is essential reading. Who needs Shakespeare to outline tradgey? Wilde was imprisoned after a second trial (the first was a no decision). He was confined in the horridEnglish jails for two years. "The wretched prisoner is then left aprey to the most weakening, depressing and humiliating malady.... punishedwith the greatest severity and brutality. Each and all these things I hadto transform into a spirtual experience." The ballad

outlines thehorrors he and others endure who are prisoners of conscience. A terribletragedy. ... Read more

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This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.Download Description
Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks.Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG- - CYRIL (coming in through the open window from the terrace). My dear Vivian, don't coop yourself up all day in the library. It is a perfectly lovely afternoon. The air is exquisite. There is a mist upon the woods, like the purple bloom upon a plum. Let us go and lie on the grass and smoke cigarettes and enjoy Nature.VIVIAN. Enjoy Nature! I am glad to say that I have entirely lost that faculty. People tell us that Art makes us love Nature more than we loved her before; that it reveals her secrets to us; and that after a careful study of Corot and Constable we see things in her that had escaped our observation. My own experience is that the more we study Art, the less we care for Nature ... Read more

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Under Socialism all this will, of course, be altered. There will be no people living in fetid dens and fetid rags, and bringing up unhealthy, hungerpinched children in the midst of impossible and absolutely repulsive surroundings. The security of society will not depend, as it does now, on the state of the weather. If a frost comes we shall not have a hundred thousand men out of work, tramping about the streets in a state of disgusting misery, or whining to their neighbours for alms, or crowding round the doors of loathsome shelters to try and secure a hunch of bread and a night's unclean lodging. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

This book was writen, 100 years ahead of his time
I read this book, translated to the portuguese, here in Brazil.This book was writen, in XIX century.About socialism, this book is prophetic.
This book doesn't talks, only about socialism, but also about other things.This book is short, very easy to read, and even after more than 120 years later, this book is still, better than many other options to read about socialism. ... Read more

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A HOUSE OF POMEGRANITES

Oscar Wilde's collection of fairy tales for adults includes four classic stories "The Young King," "The Birthday of the Infanta," "The Fisherman and his Soul," and "The Star-child." ... Read more

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The Market Place of Padua at noon; in the background is the great Cathedral of Padua; the architecture is Romanesque, and wrought in black and white marbles; a flight of marble steps leads up to the Cathedral door; at the foot of the steps are two large stone lions; the houses on each aide of the stage have coloured awnings from their windows, and are flanked by stone arcades; on the right of the stage is the public fountain, with a triton in green bronze blowing from a conch; around the fountain is a stone seat; the bell of the Cathedral is ringing, and the citizens, men, women and children, are passing into the Cathedral. ... Read more

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This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.Download Description
Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks.Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG- - It was Lady Windermere's last reception before Easter, and Bentinck House was even more crowded than usual. Six Cabinet Ministers had come on from the Speaker's Levee in their stars and ribands, all the pretty women wore their smartest dresses, and at the end of the picture-gallery stood the Princess Sophia of Carlsruhe, a heavy Tartar-looking lady, with tiny black eyes and wonderful emeralds, talking bad French at the top of her voice, and laughing immoderately at everything that was said to her. It was certainly a wonderful medley of people. Gorgeous peeresses chatted affably to violent Radicals, popular preachers brushed coat-tails with eminent sceptics, a perfect bevy of bishops kept following a stout prima-donna from room to room, on the staircase stood several Royal Academicians, disguised as artists, and it was said that at one time the supper-room was absolutely crammed with geniuses. In fact, it was one of Lady Windermere's best nights, and the Princess stayed till nearly half-past eleven. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

typically charming offbeat Wilde story
A humorous story published as part of a collection of stories by Wilde in 1891: Lord Arthur Saville's Crime and Other Stories .
At Lady Windermere's final reception before Easter, at Bentinck House, Lady Windermere's chiromantist, Mr. Podgers is quite a hit, telling people about themselves and their fortunes.

The chiromantist tells one Lord Arthur Saville that before he can marry his beloved, he must murder a distant relative. What follows is a hilarious account of LordSaville's various failed attempts through poison , explosives etc to do the deed, before in despair , he rather murders Mr. Podgers himself.

A typically charming offbeat Wilde story with a twist in the tale.

Don't believe superficial certainties
Lord Saville one night listens to a chiromantist who tells him he has to commit a crime, whose victim is supposed to be a relative of some kind, before being able to marry his love. The tale is full of humor and shows how he fails, systematically, in his enterprise, because he believes the soothsayer. But the more humoristic the tale becomes, the more desperate Lord Saville grows. Till one night he kills the chiromantist. He has finally been able to rebel against the prediction and this rebellion proves the prediction is a fake. But a second dimension appears in the tale. The chiromantist had been introduced to Lord Saville by some woman who invites such oddities to her parties to amuse the audience. She behaves as if she believed in those ominous birds that she calls lions. And Lord Saville was naive enough to accept this prediction as true and unescapable because it had been introduced to him by this particular woman, in this particular situation. Men must not fall in the traps of social tricks that some women hire to give some life to their social evenings that would be very dull otherwise. Who is wiser? The woman who "animates" her social gatherings with such attractions? Or the man who falls in the trap of believing such predictions? The other tales of the collection are all just as funny by showing how some people are able to go beyond such appearances and reach another level of being that is some kind of game and it becomes a trap to the gullible ones.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Perpignan

excellent interpretation of Wilder's short story
This is a CBC dramatized interpretation of Wilde's short story. Taped in front of live audience, this is by far the best story- telling that has ever done to Wilde's work. Both music and sound effect are superb, and best of all, the narration and dialogues closely follow the original story. In this respect, CBC has outperformed BBC by a large degree. ... Read more

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There is not a GOOD woman in London who would not applaud me. We have been too lax. We must make an example. I propose to begin to-night. [Picking up fan.] Yes, you gave me this fan to-day; it was your birthday present. If that woman crosses my threshold, I shall strike her across the face with it. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Cecil Graham , the cynical hero
Melodramatics from Lady Windermere. Mrs. Erlynne and Lord Windermere meeting but incomprehensibly deaf to the rumors about them. Yes, this is not Oscar Wilde's best play but, oh, the zingers he does get in, namely through Cecil Graham. Example: "Well, there's nothing in the world like the devotion of a married woman. It's a thing no married man knows anything about." Read it for the pithy lines.

Lady Windermere
I have always enjoyed all of Oscar Wilde's works, but this is not very good compared with the others, but none the lessstill worth reading. The characters were sort of dull, but the plot intresting which made up for it. I'd reccomend this to fans of Oscar Wilde, but if you have just discovered Wilde, skip this and start with either, "The picture of dorian gray" or "the importance of being Earnest".

Lady Windermere's Fan
I just wanted to say that i really love this play and that i highly suggest that everyone should read this funny and witty masterpiece. Lady Windermere is so naive but i liked the bit when she threatens to slap Mrs Erlynne across the face. That's what i call Girl Power!!

Anyway, i wanted to know if there are any notes to accompany this play. I need some notes that focus on the language of the play, social context, characters, etc.

I would be eternally grateful if anyone could help.

How can women survive in victorian society
Oscar Wilde entirely dedicates this play to the exploration of the way a woman can be saved from destruction in this society of appearances. A woman was the victim of an imbroglio in the past and abandoned her daughter. This woman comes back and the daughter ignores her relation to her. She is brought back into societry by the daughter's husband who knows the truth but does not want his wife to know it. But there is some kind of malediction that flies over the heads of these women. The daughter nearly does the same mistake as her mother but she is saved by her mother who accepts to be tainted in her daughter's place. Bus Oscar Wilde must think there is some kind of reward for a good deed and all is well that ends well, and this play has a happy ending. In spite of all the melodramatic sentimentalese atmosphere, Oscar Wilde definitely explores in this play the great disadvantage of a woman in society. Men can do nearly all they want. Women are extremely limited and have to walk a very straight and narrow line. Oscar Wilde seems to be ahead of his time as for the fate of women: he seems to aspire for real equality for them, though he shows in all possible ways that this is impossible in his society.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Perpignan

Wildely Entertaining
My first experience reading Oscar Wilde... and certainly not mylast.

Wilde's sardonic wit and ineffable satire had me enchanted frompage one.Wilde writes with devastatingly appealing witticisms, and with astyle and cleverness matched by few other authors.It is said that he isone of the more oft-quoted authors in the English language, and I nowunderstand why.

In addition to axioms and aphorisms of pure genius, theplot both captivates and surprises the reader.Lady Windermere discoversthat her husband has been cheating on her, and a folly of misunderstandingsand poor advice then unfolds; all the while satirizing society. ... Read more

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Wilde speaking for himself
This book is an absolue delight, a most wonderful portrait of one of the most interesting figures in history.When people think of Oscar Wilde, they think scandals and love affairs.Wilde has most certainly been made into a larger than life character.This book humanizes Wilde, gives him a chance to speak for himself, to show what he really was.His business corrospondnce, letters to his children, these simple writings from his everyday life show a sign of Wilde that people do not think about.I can't recommend this book highly enough.

The not so "Wilde" writings of Oscar...
As one of those people who has always found Oscar Wilde an interesting and inscrutable character I had great expectations and an insatiable desire to finally peruse the epistolary output of this remarkable man. Sadly and I will add through no fault of the editors ofthis opus this compilationwill probably leave most readers still searching for insight. Many of these letters (if not the majority) deal with very mundane issues (e.g.business arrangements,inquiries to publishers, very conventional thank you notes and in the post-gaol notes a good number of entreaties for money). Of course this book does contain De Profundis which does present some fascinating insights about the way his mind was functioning during his incarcerationas well as the great indignities attendant with this. I would still recommend this to the diehard Wilde fanatic but to the novice would recommend a good standard biography (Ellman's for example).

WILDE with delight!
Though Mr. Wilde is indeed dead, his memory and writing is still with us. With this new book, "THE COMPLETE LETTERS OF OSCAR WILDE" you get a total new insiders glance on Oscar Wilde and his life. If you are a fan of Oscar Wilde, merely just heard of him, or a fan of literature, this is a must-have! ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (4)

harris intellect can stand up to wilde's
this book is a work of art and is the primary source of all the biographies of Wilde. I particularly liked the last part of the book where Harris debates Wilde about male to male love vs. male to female love.Harris is plainly not intimidated by Wilde's witticism's and keeps to a serious vein without being rankled or becoming victimized by Wilde's ability to trivialize subjects with a veneer of parody. Among more of Harris insights is the statement that Bosie,(Wilde's "lover") and Bosie's father the Marquiss of Quennsbury are really 2 opposite ends of the same log.Harris biography seems more like a piece of literature and the life of Wilde,could even Dickens have thought up such a character as Oscar Wilde,I know Poe did!!

biography as art
One cannot improve upon the remarks fore-mentioned of George Bernard Shaw's. Long before public figures of no talent were thrust upon us, literate minds instead of marketeers gathered around the chosen few as johnny-come-latelys and would rarely disappoint. This is a thrilling,gripping read.Style,tact and endless grace in words for a tragic,painful public artist run throughout this personal account.Much can be gained from savoring this moment in time if one aspires celebrity and fame and wants to avoid its dizzying pitfalls.

A Story of How to Enjoy Life and Be Miserable -- All at Once
I picked this book up in a used book store for [money] more than when it was purchased new in 1960.The pages literally crumbled as I turned them, but I couldn't put the book down.I was enthralled with the life of Oscar Wilde.Now, this biography isn't one written years after the subject's death from scraps of information.No.This is written by a very close friend of Wilde's, Frank Harris.In being written by someone of such closeness, it lends credence to the harsh words the author had to say of Wilde.Harris calls him lazy and slothenly.Of course, Wilde caused quite a sensation in his time.He was imprisoned under other pretenses, but mainly because he was a homosexual in a time period when this was not acceptable.Oscar was one who did not care what others thought of him.He was determined to live a life of pleasure and to make money doing things that he liked:writing and speaking.However, he did a great deal of leaching off of others.There's no denying Wilde's genius.I have yet to read any of his works except for a short essay entitled "The Soul of Man Under Socialism."To me, the thoughts seemed profound.But Harris says that Oscar never said or wrote anything original; he merely took other people's thoughts, meshed them together, and said them in a more profound way.This is a biography that reads like a fine story.Harris is a great writer and has more first-hand knowledge of his subject than any other biographer that I've read.I'd reccomend this book to others without reservation.

"The best life of Oscar Wilde", said George Bernard Shaw.
"The best life of Oscar Wilde", said George Bernard Shaw after reading this book. I cannot but agree with him utterly. No unnecesary data is wasted, no long reflexions bore us. It's just an Oscar's very closefriend telling us with great elegance and delicacy the story of one he hasadmired and loved so much, but without fear of saying the truth. AmicusPlato, sed magis amica veritas. Of course, the reader has to know Mr Harrisis the true "lead actor" in the story he's telling us, alwayssupporting the Truth and the Right. But one can easily forgive him for thatin reward for the great moments un Oscar's life he's saved from oblivionand darkness. A wonderful work of art itself, this biography must be readby every admirer of that Prince of Charm Oscar Wilde was. X. Careaga ... Read more

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Oscar Wilde's Salome and Andre Gide's Saul have been considered critically in the traditional contexts of authorial oeuvre, biography, or "thought."These plays have been treated with embarrassed respect, dealt with only because of the importance of their authors.That Wilde and Gide made use of biblical material seems to discomfit their critics; that they had done so at a time when biblical drama was prohibited has rarely been addressed.Traditional critical treatments seek to smooth over the plays' aberrant qualities.This study takes them seriously as aberrations and investigates Wilde's and Gide's claims that these plays are works of faith, by considering them as participating in the history of biblical drama. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Brilliant scholar
Dr. Downey confronts the little-understood censorship of Biblical drama that continued into the twentieth century.She has done immense research and synthesized it well.Read her book! ... Read more

Amazon.com
Oscar Wilde was a man ahead of his time. He was famous for pushing the parameters of socially accepted sexual codes (albeit with disastrous results), and, as a playwright, for introducing a new, extraordinarily modern, idea of comedy that combined psychological insight with social satire. But he was also one of the primary inventors of the art and science of self-invention and self-promotion. The Wilde Album by Merlin Holland (Wilde's grandson) is a fascinating and comprehensive examination of how Wilde the artist consciously conjured--through a complicated and savvy use of the media--Wilde the personality. Holland has assembled an enormous number of artifacts--from press clippings to political cartoons to theater programs --that map Wilde's emergence as a media celebrity and chart how this image was used against him as his popularity foundered in the face of scandal.

What makes The Wilde Album ultimately moving, and unique, is Holland's use of rare family photos and personal material. Juxtaposed with the vivaciousness of the public life, and in the context of the government's persecution of the artist, this more private material embodies and expresses the pain and needless tragedy of Wilde's life.Book Description

Customer Reviews (7)

Mr. Wilde's grandson strives to recreate his family heritage
Mr. Oscar Wilde, the toast of all London for his successful plays revealing the immoral soft underbelly of the British aristocracy, received a slanderous calling card at his club from the Marquess of Queensberry, whose son Al was assisting Mr. Wilde in his investigations of the more corrupt and immoral and hypocritical aspects of those filthily wealthy imperialists.

At Al's urgent request, Mr. Wilde filed suit for slander against Al's own father, serving as noted in this book in Mr. Wilde's own words, as the dice in a cruel and callous oedipal gamble between father and son. Mr. Wilde lost; the petit bourgeois father won and before the Crown brought charges against Mr. WIlde under a new immoral activities act, the father had Mr. Wilde's home ramsacked and auctioned, all of Mr. Wilde's treasured and expensive belongings, and those of his wife and two small sons, in order ostensibly to cover his own legal costs in defending himself against Mr. Wilde's charge of slander. The auction, staged as it was, brought only a very small percentage of its actual worth, yet destroyed all that the family owned.

Mr. Wilde's grandson, in gathering this present album, mentions the fact of this destruction of his family heritage by alluding to the registry of six family albums which were sold and discarded beyond any recovery. Merlin mentions this fact cold, without further comment, but the skilled reader may read between the lines the deep and painful import of this action to Merlin personally. Thus this present effort grows immeasurably poignant and important.

Though others praise the photographs here, it is the comprehensive andextensive and brilliant essay by Merlin here which makes this book as well. This book grows thereby essential for any reader of the English language, and for any reader of Irish resistance to English colonialist power, in particular that fatal power which was so coldly brought to bear against its most subtle and charming and astute and eloquent and Irish critic, greater even than GB Shaw, more subtle even than the great Mr. James Joyce.

Never mind please my ramblings nor the effusiveness of other reviews which here appear upon this page. My one qualm regarding this book is that it is not BIG enough!

Please see as well the excellent, if painfully abridged, production of An Ideal Husband in the BBC collection The Oscar Wilde Collection (The Importance of Being Earnest / The Picture of Dorian Gray / An Ideal Husband / Lady Windermere's Fan) if only to see younger and slimmer and in his prime he who would later play for them Sherlock Holmes. The Importance . . .in this collection is also tolerable if abridged and awkward; Lady Windermere's Fan begins slow with the mournful Lord, but grows inexorably to a heart wrenching finale without sentimentality.

Read all of Mr. Wilde's published work (lacking of course the bulk his writings for Women's World, and lacking his original French text of Salome) in Complete Works of Oscar Wilde (Collins Classics). The original French text of Salome you may find at Salome: Drame en un acte (Collected Works of Oscar Wilde) in order to perform your own translation into English which will undoubtedly replace Al's. It is also available in a Spanish translation at Salome - Bajo El Monte and a fine selection of his short stories at El Fantasma de Canterville y Otros Cuentos (Serie Roja Alfaguara) (Serie Roja Alfaguara).

Please read this book and know the extent of the destructive power of an offended British aristocracy, a destiny, as Merlin here indicates, as inexorable as any ancient Greek drama. Merlin's assessments of his grandfather's oeuvre are also excellent and right on, although too brief! Find further critical work by himself as well as by his father Vyvyan Holland, whose photographs as a small boy are so telling here.

QUITE TOO UTTERLY ECSTATIC!!!!!
What a Gem! If you are a fan of Oscar Wilde then this book is indispensable.
My only gripe is that it is too small. A larger format would have shown off the many Napoleon Sarony photos (the largest collection in one publication) If the publisher and Mr Holland ever read this....I'd gladly shell out for a large format edition. Other than that, I'm quite too utterly ecstatic about the book.......WELL DONE!

"...walks between passion and poetry..."
This volume is more touching and insightful than most
works about Oscar Wilde tend to be.It is filled with
the narrative commentary of Wilde's grandson,
Merlin Holland, who gives honest opinions as well
as factual detail about the various stages of
Oscar Wilde's life.
The treasures, however, are the multitudes of
photographs, memorabilia, and paintings that are
included -- as well as drawings, satirical cartoons
(mostly lampooning Oscar, both at Oxford and later
in life), and wonderful notations under the items.
The most interesting photographs, for me, are
the ones which were done by Napoleon Sarony. They
seem to touch a more thoughtful, poetic, dreamy
Oscar, rather than the posing bon vivant or the
deliberately provocative aesthete/decadent.
The volume does well to have one of those photos
on the cover, as well as having a different photo
beside the title page.The grotesque photos,
that almost make one cringe, though, are of
Oscar in a skirted Greek national costume
(with boots!) from April 1877; Oscar in a
checkered suit and bowler hat at Oxford in
1878, and Oscar at age 2 in a blue velvet
dress, a daguerreotype which has been color
tinted.The weirdest photos are of the
"blond tiger/panther" Lord Alfred Douglas,
would-be "friend" and lover of Oscar.His
eyes look vacant, haunted, cold in most of
the photos , except for the one on page 147,
in which he looks touchingly sensitive and
lonely...the caption below the picture says
it all: "Douglas aged 23. 'Your slim gilt
soul walks between passion and poetry.I know
Hyacinthus, whom Apollo loved so madly, was you
in Greek days,' Wilde wrote to him around that
time."
Truly a remarkable album of memories.

A Little Gem for Folks Wild for Wilde
This is a sparkling gem for all fans of Oscar Wilde.It is a brilliant retelling of Oscar's life through pictures.Filled with everything from photographs of Wilde the aesthete to hilarious caricatures of him from Punch magazine to some of Wilde's own drawings and notes, this fabulous little book has it all.Many of the items I have not seen in any other volume.It goes wonderfully well coupled with Richard Ellman's gorgeous biography or it stands tall on its own.All and all, a marvelous book that I cannot possibly recommend highly enough.

Marvelous little book
Cutting to the chase, the real prize in this marvelous little book are the photographs. For once, we get something other than the usual lot that appear in books with a Wilde connection. Mr. Holland has achieved through his pictures (most seem to be from the family collection) something which most texts don't do..... a feel for the whole of Wilde the man. There is a human dimension to this slim volume that one does not find elsewhere. There are pictures of ancestors, parents, editorial cartoons, advertisements, all in relatively strict chronological order, from the child in a dress (as was customary for little boys in the period) to the student, the developing fop, the lampooned character, the ludicrous pairing with Bosie... who looks perpetually bored and thoroughly uninteresting... to the depressing denouement, death bed and funerary monuments.

The text reveals nothing new but it is elegantly written. Both of Wilde's children were devoted to the memory of their father. It is evident that the grandson was raised in like manner.

Of Wilde's two boys, Cyril died in WWI without issue. Mr. Holland is the grandson of the other, Vyvyan.

If you are interested in the period, England and Ireland in late 19th century, Wilde, gay history, etc. buy this book. It is worth infinitely more than it costs. ... Read more

Book Description
This volume of Keats's powerful poetry follows as closely as possible the chronological order of composition, highlighting autobiographical elements including the young Wilde's conflicting attitudes to Greece and Rome, pagan and Christian, and his fluctuating attraction to Roman Catholicism.
The Appendix shows Wilde's original ordering, constructed with great care around a "musical" arrangement of themes. The poems reveal unexpected aspects of a literary chameleon usually identified with sparkling wit and social comedy. ... Read more

Amazon.com
Why, readers may ask, yet another book about Oscar Wilde?"Because his life is a continual allegory," the author tells us in her introduction, "and his social, political, and artistic views, which went right to the heart of Victorian society, are no less threatening today." In contrast to earlier biographers like Hesketh Pearson and Richard Ellmann, Belford emphasizes the cultural context in which Wilde (1854-1900) operated as both shrewd self-publicist and provocateur. Researching previous biographies of Violet Hunt and Bram Stoker, Belford immersed herself in the florid atmosphere of London during the 1890s, the decade of Wilde's greatest fame and infamy, and she uses this knowledge to deepen our understanding of the writer's relationship with his times. In particular, the West End theater district comes to life as the scene of Wilde's greatest triumphs as a playwright (from Lady Windermere's Fan to The Importance of Being Earnest) as well as of his introduction to "a homosocial world that had existed since Elizabethan times." Victorian society could not tolerate Wilde's relatively open homosexuality, however, and two 1895 trials ended with his conviction on charges of "gross indecency." He served two years in prison and died three years after his release, exiled, poor, and alone. Yet Belford stresses not Wilde's tragedy but his triumph. To the end, he was a gaily subversive writer whose works "demonstrate the value of graciousness, charm, and wit" even as they assert "the right of art and language to shock, to undermine, and to unsettle." --Wendy Smith Book Description
In this elegant and affectionate biography of one of the most controversial personalities of the nineteenth century, Barbara Belford breaks new ground in the evocation of Oscar Wilde's personal life and in our understanding of the choices he made for his art. Published for the centenary of Wilde's death, here is a fresh, full-scale examination of the author of The Importance of Being Earnest and The Picture of Dorian Gray, a figure not only full of himself but enjoying life to the fullest.

Based on extensive study of original sources and animated throughout by historical detail, anecdote, and insight, the narrative traces Wilde's progression from his childhood in an intellectual Irish household to his maturity as a London author to the years of his European exile. Here is Wilde the Oxford Aesthete becoming the talk of London, going off to tour America, lecturing on the craftsmanship of Cellini to the silver miners of Colorado, condemning the ugliness of cast-iron stoves to the ladies of Boston. Here is the domestic Wilde, building sandcastles with his sons, and the generous Wilde, underwriting the publication of poets, lending and spending with no thought of tomorrow. And here is the romantic Wilde, enthralled with Lord Alfred Douglas in an affair that thrived on laughter, smitten with Florence Balcombe, flirting with Violet Hunt, obsessed with Lillie Langtry, loving Constance, his wife.

Vividly evoked are the theatres, clubs, restaurants, and haunts that Wilde made famous. More than previous accounts, Belford's biography evaluates Wilde's homosexuality as not just a private matter but one connected to the politics and culture of the 1890s. Wilde's timeless observations, which make him the most quoted playwright after Shakespeare, are seamlessly woven into the life, revealing a man of remarkable intellect, energy, and warmth.

Too often portrayed as a tragic figure--persecuted, imprisoned, sent into exile, and shunned--Wilde emerges from this intuitive portrait as fully human and fallible, a man who, realizing that his creative years were behind him, committed himself to a life of sexual freedom, which he insisted was the privilege of every artist.

Even now, we have yet to catch up with the man who exhibited some of the more distinguishing characteristics of the twentieth century's preoccupation with fame and zeal for self-advertisement. Wilde's personality shaped an era, and his popularity as a wit and a dramatist has never ebbed. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

A Must For Researchers
As Continental forces and Virginia militia units were engaged in winning independence, American quartermasters and provisioners struggled to provide these units with all the necessities of life, from meals and guns to meat, fodder for horses, the horses themselves, firewood, and every other type of material. Much of this was requisitioned from the civilian population and certificates were issued payable in either continental or state funds, depending on the units supplied, upon presentation to court authorities. Thousands of these certificates issued to Virginians were duly entered by the courts, and they provide a fascinating insight into the period of the Revolution. These "Publick" Claims booklets contain interesting and useful information about the contributions of ordinary people to the Revolutionary War. They provide some details of people's service in the militia or as guards for prisoners of war; they indicate where some bodies of troops were at particular times; and they identify providers of horses, wagons, cattle, grain, or other supplies. Much of the information in these booklets cannot be found anywhere else, which makes the surviving records particularly valuable. Also remarkable is the fact that records survived from virtually every county in the state at that time with the exception of the newly formed Kentucky counties. This makes the collection even more valuable in covering areas which heretofore in this time period have suffered from a lack of personal data. The "Virginia Publick Claims" are published by counties. In addition to a faithful transcription by Janice Luck Abercrombie and the late Richard Slatten, a complete index is provided for each county booklet. This series is an extremely important genealogical tool for searchers in Revolutionary-era materials.

Middle of the Road Approach to Flamboyant Playright's Life
Ms. Bedford made no pretention to focusing upon a particular aspect of Oscar Wilde's life.Rather, she intended to offer a truly unbiased volume of carefully researched biographical information regarding Wilde and his societal surroundings.Many other readers have criticized the work for its seeming lack of spirit and depth.Ms. Bedford did not wish to offer such things, however.It is the duty of the reader to take the work and make one's own opinions regarding Wilde's life.Such a practice is rarely performed in modern times since the reading public are so very used to being told what to like - an attitude Wilde fought so much against.The volume meets the standard set by the author in the introduction, as well as the standards of biographies of its kind.It is, on the whole, a very good work.

No Spirit, Not Even a Breath!
I reached for this volume for a refreshing change of pace from this dreary, political and social state of things. Alas, there was no such lift to be had in this volume. The story was all there, the good times and the bad but the tone was too dark.I'll wager that most people who reach for his biography are less intrigued by the history as they are by the precision bite of his words. Indeed, this seems more of a latter life work. We are given a front row seat to the repressive consequences for his flaunting conservative standards about sexuality.The detailswere complete and appropriately credited. But the theatrics were missing. That novel charge so often haughty and sharp lost that rippling propulsion that has succeeded over time.As a unashamed Victorian homosexual, Wilde was well ahead of his time.The question is, was he ahead of our time as well? there can be no doubt that Wilde's tongue can wag and delight contemporary readers and theater goers. However that voice and pen, used with sizzling, frenetic arrogance is sadly, not at home in this bio.

Not Wilde About It
Barbara Belford's biography is well-illustrated and quotes its subject profusely, yet I came away with the feeling it tried to hard to prove a theory of Wilde rather than to explore him. The author discusses her reservations about Ellmann's biography of Wilde, and complains in her foreword that recent biographies have "take[n] specialist views: ... the Irish Wilde, the gay Wilde..." Yet she does exactly that, and seems to want to make up for Ellman's "reticence" in discussing Wilde's sexuality by placing it at instead the center of this work. As if Ellmann's Wilde was perhaps not gay enough for some, Belford's is overwhelmingly so; this has the (unintended?) effect of minimizing the importance of Wilde's wife Constance and his children. Wilde's homosexual passions are cast as the sole source of his inspiration, and it is suggested that he wanted to assert his right to live as he chose. In fact, the opposite appears true. By prosecuting Queensberry, Wilde was in essence asserting his right to stay legally and publicly in the closet. Once he had been forced in court to accept that Queensberry was "entitled to call him a posing sodomite", Wilde hardly seems to have accepted the title with enthusiasm or pride, as he himself makes clear in the opening of De Profundis.

Overall I'd say it was a pleasant enough read for those already familiar with its subject, but I would hesitate to recommend it to Wilde novices: the man was more complex than he is ultimately portrayed here, and one almost gets the impression the writer dislikes her subject. It leaves the taste of an exposé.

Painstakingly researched, but....
Although it is apparant that Barbara Belford researched Oscar Wilde's life thoroughly, she is never able to capture her subject in such a way that the reader feels s/he knows Wilde well.Often her sentences are run-on and so confusing that frequently I had to re-read a line in order to grasp its meaning.

I have recently read Jonathan Fryer's biography of Robbie Ross who was Wilde's great friend and literary executor.If Ross had not been associated so closely with Wilde, his life would not merit a biography.Even so, I feel that I know Ross better from Fryer's book than I understand Wilde from Belford's.The same holds true concerning Douglas Murray's book, Bosie: A Biography of Lord Alfred Douglas.Bosie's relationship with Wilde brought about Wilde's conviction for gross indecency, his imprisonment, his exile and contributed to his early death in 1900.Aside from those facts, Bosie Douglas's life would not call for a biography.Yet again I understand Bosie from Murray's book than I understand Wilde from Belford's.In fact, both Fryer and Murray offer more insight into Wilde in their biographies of his close associates than Belford offers in her biography of Wilde. ... Read more