Search results for ""Author Oscar Wilde""

'Wilde did not converse - he told tales.' Oscar Wilde was already famous as a brilliant wit and raconteur when he first began to publish his short stories in the late 1880s. They have never lacked readers and admirers, George Orwell and W. B. Yeats among them. The stories give free rein to Wilde's originality, literary skill, and sophistication. They include poignant fairy-tales such as 'The Happy Prince' and 'The Selfish Giant', and the extravagant comedy and social observation of 'Lord Arthur Savile's Crime' and 'The Canterville Ghost'. They also encompass the daring narrative experiments of 'The Portrait of Mr. W. H.', Wilde's fictional investigation into the identity of the dedicatee of Shakespeare's sonnets, and the 'Poems in Prose', based on the Gospel stories. This edition demonstrates the centrality of Wilde's shorter fiction in his literary career, and his continuing development and experimentation with the short story format. Combining myth, romance, and irony, Wilde's stories enthral and challenge the reader. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

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"The most consistent of all series in terms of language control, length, and quality of story." David R. Hill, Director of the Edinburgh Project on Extensive Reading.

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'A triumph of execution ... one of the best narratives of the "double life" of a Victorian gentleman' Peter AckroydOscar Wilde's alluring novel of decadence and sin was a succès de scandale on publication. It follows Dorian Gray who, enthralled by his own exquisite portrait, exchanges his soul for eternal youth and beauty. Influenced by his friend Lord Henry Wotton, he is drawn into a corrupt double life, indulging his desires in secret while remaining a gentleman in the eyes of polite society. Only his portrait bears the traces of his depravity. This definitive edition includes a selection of contemporary reviews condemning the novel's immorality.Edited with an Introduction and notes by ROBERT MIGHALL

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De Profundis and Other Prison Writings is a new selection of Oscar Wilde's prison letters and poetry in Penguin Classics, edited and introduced by Colm Tóibín.At the start of 1895, Oscar Wilde was the toast of London, widely feted for his most recent stage success, An Ideal Husband. But by May of the same year, Wilde was in Reading prison sentenced to hard labour. 'De Profundis' is an epistolic account of Oscar Wilde's spiritual journey while in prison, and describes his new, shocking conviction that 'the supreme vice is shallowness'. This edition also includes further letters to his wife, his friends, the Home Secretary, newspaper editors and his lover Lord Alfred Douglas - Bosie - himself, as well as 'The Ballad of Reading Gaol', the heart-rending poem about a man sentenced to hang for the murder of the woman he loved. This Penguin edition is based on the definitive Complete Letters, edited by Wilde's grandson Merlin Holland. Colm Tóibín's introduction explores Wilde's duality in love, politics and literature. This edition also includes notes on the text and suggested further reading. Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin. His three volumes of short fiction, The Happy Prince, Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and A House of Pomegranates, together with his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, won him a reputation as a writer with an original talent, a reputation enhanced by the phenomenal success of his society comedies - Lady Windermere's Fan, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest. Colm Tóibín is the author of five novels, including The Blackwater Lightship and The Master, and a collection of stories, Mothers and Sons. His essay collection Love in a Dark Time: Gay Lives from Wilde to Almodovar appeared in 2002. He is the editor of The Penguin Book of Irish Fiction.

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Lady Windermere's Fan/Salomé/A Woman of No Importance/An Ideal Husband/A Florentine Tragedy/The Importance of Being Earnest'To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness'The Importance of Being Earnest is a glorious comedy of mistaken identity, which ridicules codes of propriety and etiquette. Snobbery and hypocrisy are also laid bare in Lady Windermere's Fan, A Woman of No Importance and An Ideal Husband, while in Salomé and A Florentine Tragedy, Wilde uses historical settings to explore the complex relationship between sex and power. The range of these plays displays Wilde's delight in artifice, masks and disguises, and reveals the pretensions of the social world in which he himself played such a dazzling and precarious part.Edited with Introduction, Commentaries and Notes by Richard Allen Cave

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Selection includes The Portrait of Mr W.H., Wilde's defence of Dorian Gray, reviews, and the writings from 'Intentions' (1891): 'The Decay of Lying, 'Pen, Pencil, Poison', and 'The Critic as Artist'.Wilde is familiar to us as the ironic critic behind the social comedies, as the creator of the beautiful and doomed Dorian Gray, as the flamboyant aesthete and the demonised homosexual. This volume presents us with a different Wilde. Wilde emerges here as a deep and serious reader of literature and philosophy, and an eloquent and original thinker about society and art.

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Sally Castle’s beautifully hand-lettered and illustrated edition of Oscar Wilde’s The Happy Prince sets the story among Reading’s parks, squares, rooflines and churches – the town that’s shaped her and her artwork and where Oscar spent an unhappy period in gaol. This enchanting combination of fairy story with concrete urban reality, a tale of sacrificial love written with a flourish and swirl, turns a simple book into a gem as precious as the large red ruby that glowed on the Prince’s sword-hilt. With an introduction by Michael Seeney, author and collector of Wilde’s work.

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This is the classic novel brought to life in full colour! Wilde's clever parody provides an entertaining twist on the traditional gothic horror story. A materialistic American family moves into the English mansion of Canterville Chase, much to the annoyance of the resident ghost! This brilliant and often overlooked story is a wonderful commentary on how Wilde saw 'free' America challenging 'traditional' England - all under the guise of a charming, heartwarming and comical book.

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The richness of Oscar Wilde's way with words and ideas is given full range in this sparkling collection of short stories written between 1887 and 1891. From the comic tales of The Canterville Ghost and Lord Arthur Savile's Crime to the marvelous fairy stories and fantasies of The Selfish Giant, The Happy Prince and The Star Child, we are treated to the extravagance and dexterity of Wilde's exceptional wit, in stories that will appeal to both adults and children. Beautifully illustrated by Charles Robinson and Walter Crane, this Macmillan Collector's Library edition of The Happy Prince & Other Stories also features an afterword by author David Stuart Davies.Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.

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“Backgrounds” includes essays on Wilde and the 1890s by prominent cultural critics Karl Beckson, Sharon Marcus, and Michael Patrick Gillespie. “Early Reviews and Reactions” collects contemporary responses to The Importance of Being Earnest, including George Bernard Shaw’s famous dissenting review and other commentary by H. G. Wells, Hamilton Fyfe, and William Archer. “Essays in Criticism” includes seven diverse assessments—six of them new to the Second Edition—of Wilde and the play by E. H. Mikhail, Burkhard Niederhoff, Christopher S. Nassaar, Clifton Snider, Brigitte Bastiat, Eibhear Walshe, and Maneck H. Daruwala. A chronology and selected bibliography are also included.

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The Importance of Being Earnest is one of the most enduringly popular of British comic dramas, and a mainstay of English literature and drama courses at college and university level. This is an ideal edition for students with on-page notes to help clarify meaning, and a completely new introduction. In the new introduction, Francesca Coppa explores recent critical approaches to the play, including queer and postcolonial readings, as well as giving the context in which the play was written and how it relates to Wilde's personal life and public persona. The introduction also discusses the play's stage history, providing students with an ideal overview of the play and its resonances for contemporary audiences.

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An innovative new edition of nine classic short stories from one of the greatest writers of the Victorian era.“I cannot think other than in stories,” Oscar Wilde once confessed to his friend André Gide. In this new selection of his short fiction, Wilde’s gifts as a storyteller are on full display, accompanied by informative facing-page annotations from Wilde biographer and scholar Nicholas Frankel. A wide-ranging introduction brings readers into the world from which the author drew inspiration.Each story in the collection brims with Wilde’s trademark wit, style, and sharp social criticism. Many are reputed to have been written for children, although Wilde insisted this was not true and that his stories would appeal to all “those who have kept the childlike faculties of wonder and joy.” “Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime” stands alongside Wilde’s comic masterpiece The Importance of Being Earnest, while other stories—including “The Happy Prince,” the tale of a young ruler who had never known sorrow, and “The Nightingale and the Rose,” the story of a nightingale who sacrifices herself for true love—embrace the theme of tragic, forbidden love and are driven by an undercurrent of seriousness, even despair, at the repressive social and sexual values of Wilde’s day. Like his later writings, Wilde’s stories are a sweeping indictment of the society that would imprison him for his homosexuality in 1895, five years before his death at the age of forty-six.Published here in the form in which Victorian readers first encountered them, Wilde’s short stories contain much that appeals to modern readers of vastly different ages and temperaments. They are the perfect distillation of one of the Victorian era’s most remarkable writers.

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In Oscar Wilde's famous novel, Dorian Gray is tempted by Henry Wotton to sell his soul in order to hold on to beauty and youth. Dorian succumbs and murders the portrait painter Basil Haliward, who stands between him and his goal. Though in the end vice is punished and virtue rewarded, the novel remains one of the most important expressions of fin de siècle decadence. It is in the preface to the expanded edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray that Wilde coined the most famous expression of his aesthetic: "There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well-written or badly-written. That is all."Like other Broadview Editions, this edition includes a wide range of materials from the period that help to set the text in context. In particular, the editor locates the text both in relation to elements in the mainstream culture of the day (such as the aesthetes); and in relation to the gay subculture.

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In The Critic as Artist, arguably the most complete exploration of his aesthetic thinking, and certainly the most entertaining, Oscar Wilde harnesses his famous wit to demolish the supposed boundary between art and criticism. Subtitled Upon the Importance of Doing Nothing and Discussing Everything, the essay takes the form of a leisurely dialogue between two characters: Ernest, who insists upon Wilde’s own belief in art’s freedom from societal mandates and values, and a quizzical Gilbert. With his playwright’s ear for dialogue, Wilde champions idleness and contemplation as prerequisites to artistic cultivation. Beyond the well-known dictum of art for art’s sake, Wilde’s originality lays argument for the equality of criticism and art. For him, criticism is not subject to the work of art, but can in fact precede it: the artist cannot create without engaging his or her critical faculties first. And, as Wilde writes, “To the critic the work of art is simply a suggestion for a new work of his own.” The field of art and criticism should be open to the free play of the mind, but Wilde plays seriously, even prophetically. Writing in 1891, he foresaw that criticism would have an increasingly important role as the need to make sense of what we see increases with the complexities of modern life. It is only the fine perception and explication of beauty, Wilde suggests, that will allow us to create meaning, joy, empathy, and peace out of the chaos of facts and reality.

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The Collins Complete Works of Oscar Wilde is the only truly complete and authoritative single-volume edition of Oscar Wilde’s works, and is available in both hardback and this paperback edition. Continuously in print since 1948, the Collins Complete Works of Oscar Wilde has long been recognised as the most comprehensive and authoritative single-volume collection of Wilde’s texts available, containing his only novel, The Portrait of Dorian Gray, as well as his plays, stories, poems, essays and letters, all in their most authoritative texts. Illustrated with many fascinating photographs, the book includes introductions to each section by Merlin Holland (Oscar’s grandson), Owen Dudley Edwards, Declan Kiberd and Terence Brown. Also included is a comprehensive bibliography of works by and about Oscar Wilde, and a chronological table of his life and work.

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Two young gentlemen living in 1890's England use imaginary friends to inject some excitement into their seemingly dull lives. Jack Worthing invents a brother, "Ernest," whom he pretends to be in order to visit his beloved Gwendolen in the city. Meanwhile, friend Algy Moncrieff uses the name "Ernest" while visiting Jack's beautiful young ward, Cecily in the country. Much confusion ensues as the two women find out they have been deceived by their "Ernests." Some would call this a society comedy; others, a Victorian farce. Regardless of the term used, this full colour graphic novel captures the era effortlessly. With an intricate attention to detail, wonderful characterisation and dramatically expressive and humorous artwork, this really is a graphic novel to cherish.

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Better known in 1882 as a cultural icon than a serious writer, Oscar Wilde was brought to North America for a major lecture tour on Aestheticism and the decorative arts. With characteristic aplomb, he adopted the role as the ambassador of Aestheticism, and he tried out a number of phrases, ideas, and strategies that ultimately made him famous as a novelist and playwright. This exceptional volume cites all ninety-one of Wilde's interviews and contains transcripts of forty-eight of them, and it also includes his lecture on his travels in America.

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Better known in 1882 as a cultural icon than a serious writer, Oscar Wilde was brought to North America for a major lecture tour on Aestheticism and the decorative arts. With characteristic aplomb, he adopted the role as the ambassador of Aestheticism, and he tried out a number of phrases, ideas, and strategies that ultimately made him famous as a novelist and playwright. This exceptional volume cites all ninety-one of Wilde's interviews and contains transcripts of forty-eight of them, and it also includes his lecture on his travels in America.

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Two men hold the answer to Dorian’s secret. One is the artist, Basil Hallward, who paints Dorian’s portrait. The other is Lord Henry Wotton, who convinces the impressionable Dorian that youth and pleasure are the only things worth living for. Is Dorian Gray really as innocent as he seems? Can love and friendship save him from himself? Or will the secret of the picture of Dorian Gray be a secret he takes to his grave?

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Oscar Wilde's fairy tales were, he said, "meant partly for children, and partly for those who have kept the childlike faculties of wonder and joy." The tales include The Happy Prince, The Remarkable Rocket, and The Fisherman and his Soul. In them, Wilde mocks the self-important and self-righteous, and celebrates the virtues of pity and charity. Finely-wrought, and studded with dazzling word-pictures, these are stories to treasure. In this new edition, which contains all of Wilde's fairy tales, his rich prose is evoked beautifully with the sumptuous, intricate work of artist Isabelle Brent. With an insightful introduction by Neil Philip, this is surely the definitive edition of Wilde's classic tales.

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The collected BBC radio productions of the major works of Oscar Wilde, plus bonus play by Neil BartlettLoved for his flamboyant personality, sparkling wit and brilliant epigrams, Oscar Wilde was a comic genius and a literary icon.This collection reflects the many facets of his dazzling talent. Here are dramatisations of his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, a Gothic tale of a gilded aristocrat who makes a dangerous pact, as well as four scintillating social comedies – Lady Windermere’s Fan, A Woman of No Importance, The Importance of Being Earnest and An Ideal Husband. Among the distinguished casts are Ian MacDiarmid, Joely Richardson, Edward Fox, Diana Rigg, Martin Clunes, Michael Hordern and Judi Dench.Moving examples of his correspondence are revealed in The Letters of Oscar Wilde and De Profundis, read by Simon Callow and Simon Russell Beale respectively, and his most famous poem, The Ballad of Reading Gaol, is performed live by stars including Ian McKellen, Neil Tennant and Stephen Fry.In addition, a bonus drama, In Extremis by Neil Bartlett, starring Corin Redgrave and Sheila Hancock, reimagines Oscar Wilde's hastily arranged sitting with a society palm reader, a week before the trial that would cost him so dearly.

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Two stories full of love, devotion and sacrifice. A mournful statue is helped by a swallow to carry out acts of charity around the city. A nightingale longs to find a red rose for her friend, but the rose bush asks a high price. Both these feathered creatures pay the ultimate price to help others, showing that true love is selfless. These retellings of Oscar Wilde's tragic short stories will reduce you to tears with their beauty and magic. TreeTops Greatest Stories offers children some of the worlds best-loved tales in a collection of timeless classics. Top children's authors and talented illustrators work together to bring to life our literary heritage for a new generation, engaging and delighting children. The books are carefully levelled, making it easy to match every child to the right book. Each book contains inside cover notes to help children explore the content, supporting their reading development. Teaching notes on Oxford Owl offer cross-curricular links and activities to support guided reading, writing, speaking and listening.

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In a town where a lot of poor people suffer and where there are a lot of miseries, a swallow who was left behind after his flock flew off to Egypt for the winter, meets the statue of the late ‘Happy Prince’, who in reality has never experienced true sorrow, for he lived in a palace where sorrow isn’t allowed to enter. Viewing various scenes of people suffering in poverty from his tall monument, the Happy Prince asks the swallow to take the ruby from his hilt, the sapphires from his eyes, and the golden leaf covering his body to give to the poor. As the winter comes and the Happy Prince is stripped of all of his beauty, his lead heart breaks when the swallow dies as a result of his selfless deeds and severe cold. The statue is then brought down from the pillar and melted in a furnace leaving behind the broken heart and the dead swallow and they are thrown in a dust heap. These are taken up to heaven by an angel that has deemed them the two most precious things in the city. This is affirmed by God and they live forever in his city of gold and garden of paradise.

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This Norton Critical Edition includes: The 1890 (Lippincott’s Magazine) version and the 1891 (book) version of the novel. Under the editorial guidance of Wilde scholar Michael Patrick Gillespie, students have the opportunity to comparatively read and analyse both texts of this controversial novel. Editorial matter by Michael Patrick Gillespie. “Backgrounds” and “Reviews and Reactions” sections that allow readers to gauge The Picture of Dorian Gray’s sensational reception and to consider the heated public debate over art and morality that followed—including Oscar Wilde’s vehement replies to individual critics. Seven critical essays—six of them new to the Third Edition—that address the novel’s major themes: aestheticism, decadence and vice. Contributors include Joseph Carroll, Nils Clausson, Emily Eells, Michael Patrick Gillespie, Richard Haslam, Donald L. Lawler and Ellen Scheible. A chronology and a selected bibliography.

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A haunting, magical fairy-tale collection, in which Oscar Wilde beautifully evokes (among others) The Happy Prince who was not so happy after all, The Selfish Giant who learned to love little children and The Star Child who did not love his parents as much as he should. Each of the stories shines with poetry and magic and will be enjoyed by children of every age.A perfect collection for children young and old, introduced by Markus Zusak, bestselling author of The Book Thief.

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Oscar Wilde's fairy tales are some of his most elegant and charming pieces of writing. He produced two books of fairy tales -- THE HAPPY PRINCE AND OTHER TALES, and A HOUSE OF POMEGRANATES . They've rarely been collected in one volume -- and never with stunning artwork by Yuko Shimizu (THE UNWRITTEN, BARBED WIRE BASEBALL, A WILD SWAN), one of the modern masters of illustration and graphic art. Wilde's original fairy tales are moving, sweet, sad and magical -- much like Yuko's artwork. Yuko is one of the most celebrated and admired editorial illustrators in the world, and her work is perfectly aligned with Wilde's witty, rueful voice. The edition also features an original introduction by the Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Michael Cunningham. Illuminated Editions is a series of works of classic fiction, prose, and poetry, beautifully designed and lavishly illustrated in exquisitely produced small-batch editions. These volumes intend to harken back to the lovingly crafted, handsomely bound illustrated books of the Victorian era and the golden age of illustration, re-imagined using modern design sensibilities and the most modern techniques in presentation, book-craft, and printing. Each cloth-bound volume in this series is presented in a die-cut slipcase, printed on high quality wood-free uncoated paper, and powerfully elaborated by one of the finest graphic artists in the world.

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Oscar Wilde’s children’s stories explore timeless themes of good and evil, freedom and responsibility, love and death, beauty and self-sacrifice. Featuring princesses, ogres and talking animals, the questions they pose are as pertinent now as they were at the turn of the century. What is love? asks ‘The Happy Prince’. How do you get what you need? asks ‘The Nightingale and the Rose’. How do you win friends (and avoid alienating people)? asks ‘The Selfish Giant’. Can you have too much compassion? asks ‘The Devoted Friend’. How can you set the world on fire? asks ‘The Remarkable Rocket’. Wilde’s stories have given pleasure to generations of readers. By turns moving and funny, they gently teach free thinking rather than giving prescriptive lessons. This beautiful collectors’ edition with original watercolour illustrations and decorative motifs from the 1913 edition by Charles Robinson and an introduction by Wilde expert Michèle Mendelssohn is certain to surprise and delight adults and children alike.

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One of the nineteenth century’s most successful and most frequently revived plays, An Ideal Husband has divided critics more than any other of Wilde’s plays. Treating political intrigue, financial fraud, blackmail, scandal and spin, and the role of women in public life, it is a play which engaged with issues of vital importance to its late-Victorian audience, which continue to resonate today. Sos Eltis, a specialist in Victorian drama and its relation to women's issues, provides a stimulating new perspective on An Ideal Husband, through an introduction that looks at its relation with contemporary social purity campaigns, women's rights, and political scandals. The introduction also gives a substantial performance history, with particular reference to the play's film versions and the influential Peter Hall theatre production.

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This volume in CSA Word's famous Short Story compilation series focuses on the very best in timeless short fiction.

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