The Importance of Being Oscar: The Life and Wit of Oscar Wilde - Hardcover

Leslie Frewin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0491031858 ISBN 13: 9780491031851

Publisher: W.H. Allen, 1986

Synopsis

Front flap:
This sparkling collection of the wit and wisdom of Oscar Wilde traces Wilde's extraordinary rise into the finest English salons of the nineteenth century, and his scandalous fall into imprisonment and exile. With a wit more devastating than any of his contemporaries, Wilde was at the centre of a circle of luminaries which included Max Beerbohm, Robert Browning, Mark Twain, Lily Langtry and whoever happened to be the current toast of the society season.

Gloriously immodest, Wilde claimed that "to love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance." An incurable dandy, he observed of high fashion that "Women's styles may change, but their designs remain the same." He could be delightfully nasty ("When her third husband died, her hair turned quite gold with grief"), totally unpredictable ("Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative"), and firmly prejudiced ("Of course if one had enough money to go to America, one would not go").

Yet in most of his barbs there was a grain or more of truth. Upon his banishment from London society which masked a world of Victorian prudery, he declared, "The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame."

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING OSCAR is an accomplished biography, a fascinating portrait of an era long since gone, and, with its complete bibliography of all Wilde's published works, an invaluable reference work.

Edition details

• Publisher: W.H. Allen
• Publication date: 1986
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0491031858
• ISBN 13: 9780491031851
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256