Oscar Wilde; A Life in Letters, Writings and Wit

Wilde, Oscar; Gardiner, Juliet

ISBN 10: 1855852055 / ISBN 13: 9781855852051

Published by Collins & Brown, London

About this Item

[1 85585 205 5] 1995. (hardcover) Fine in very good dust jacket. 160pp. 8vo. Published on the centenary of Wilde's arguably greatest dramatic triumph (The Importance of Being Earnest: 1895) and the same year of his trial and imprisonment. Illustrated throughout with both full colour and black and white paintings, engravings, photographs, cartoons and caricatures of Wilde and his cronies. Jacket is lightly rubbed and shows faint wear at the upper and lower edges, but remains otherwise clean. Fine copy in very good jacket.

Seller Inventory # 133346

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Oscar Wilde; A Life in Letters, Writings and Wit
• Publisher: Collins & Brown, London
• ISBN 10: 1855852055
• ISBN 13: 9781855852051
• Binding: Hardcover
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Seller catalogs:
  • Undetermined

About this title

Synopsis

A fresh biography of Oscar Wilde which draws extensively on Wilde's letters, talks, lectures, journalism and other sources. Illustrated throughout with paintings, caricatures, theatre bills and newspaper reconstructions. From the ILLUSTRATED LETTERS series.

Reviews

In this lavishly illustrated volume, English historian and author Gardiner uses Wilde's own words to delineate his life and times. What emerges is a picture of a man whom William Butler Yeats described as "the greatest talker of all time." Gardiner highlights Wilde's advocacy of aestheticism, his "search after the signs of the beautiful," which led him to renounce his conventional lifestyle and become an active homosexual. The final third of the book focuses on Wilde's tumultuous relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas and the scandal that resulted when "Bosie's" father, the Marquess of Queensbury, attacked Wilde's way of life. The volume is beset by a number of mechanical problems-quotations from original sources are awkwardly incorporated into the author's sentences, punctuation is at times faulty, and transitions not always smooth. Nonetheless, the book provides a good overview of Wilde's life; Gardiner acknowledges Richard Ellman's biography (Oscar Wilde, LJ 12/87) as the "fullest life possible." Suitable for public libraries with general literature collections.
Denise J. Stankovics, Rockville P.L., Vernon, Conn.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.