New Releases by Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Oscar Fingal O''Flahertie Wills Wilde was born on the 16th October 1854 in Dublin Ireland. The son of Dublin intellectuals Oscar proved himself an outstanding classicist at Dublin, then at Oxford. With his education complete Wilde moved to London and its fashionable cultural and social circles. With his biting wit, flamboyant dress, and glittering conversation, Wilde became one of the most well-known personalities of his day. His only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray was published in 1890 and he then moved on to writing for the stage with Salome in 1891. His society comedies produced enormous hits and turned him into one of the most successful writers of late Victorian London. Whilst his masterpiece, The Importance of Being Earnest, was on stage in London, Wilde had the Marquess of Queensberry, the father of his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, prosecuted for libel. The trial unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and trial for gross indecency. He was convicted and imprisoned for two years'' hard labour. It was to break him. On release he left for France, There he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol in 1898. He died destitute in Paris at the age of forty-six sipping champagne a friend had brought with the line ''Alas I am dying beyond my means''. Here we publish a collection of short stories that whilst generally known as stories for Children are equally at home in the imaginations of adults.

An Ideal Husband is an 1895 comedic stage play by Oscar Wilde which revolves around blackmail and political corruption, and touches on the themes of public and private honour. The action is set in London, in "the present," and takes place over the course of twenty-four hours. "Sooner or later," Wilde notes, "we shall all have to pay for what we do." But he adds that, "No one should be entirely judged by their past." Together with The Importance of Being Earnest, it is often considered Wilde''s dramatic masterpiece. After Earnest, it is his most popularly produced play.In the summer of 1893, Oscar Wilde began writing An Ideal Husband, and he completed it later that winter. His work began at Goring-on-Thames, after which he named the character Lord Goring, and concluded at St. James Place. He initially sent the completed play to the Garrick Theatre, where the manager rejected it, but it was soon accepted by the Haymarket Theatre, where Lewis Waller had temporarily taken control. Waller was an excellent actor and cast himself as Sir Robert Chiltern. The play gave the Haymarket the success it desperately needed. After opening on 3 January 1895, it continued for 124 performances. In April of that year, Wilde was arrested for "gross indecency" and his name was publicly taken off the play. On 6 April, soon after Wilde''s arrest, the play moved to the Criterion Theatre where it ran from 13-27 April. The play was published in 1899, although Wilde was not listed as the author. This published version differs slightly from the performed play, for Wilde added many passages and cut others. Prominent additions included written stage directions and character descriptions. Wilde was a leader in the effort to make plays accessible to the reading public.

The Picture of Dorian Gray is an 1891 philosophical novel by Irish writer and playwright Oscar Wilde. First published as a serial story in the July 1890 issue of Lippincott''s Monthly Magazine, the editors feared the story was indecent, and without Wilde''s knowledge, deleted five hundred words before publication. Despite that censorship, The Picture of Dorian Gray offended the moral sensibilities of British book reviewers, some of whom said that Oscar Wilde merited prosecution for violating the laws guarding the public morality. In response, Wilde aggressively defended his novel and art in correspondence with the British press. Wilde revised and expanded the magazine edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) for publication as a novel; the book edition (1891) featured an aphoristic preface - an apologia about the art of the novel and the reader. The content, style, and presentation of the preface made it famous in its own literary right, as social and cultural criticism. In April 1891, the editorial house Ward, Lock and Company published the revised version of The Picture of Dorian Gray.

EXCEPTIONAL COLLECTION UNABRIDGED EDITION This edition contains within an only book, the greatest masterpieces by Oscar Wilde. The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde''s only novel, is the eerie fable of Dorian Gray, a naive and irresistible young man, who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty. He becomes steeped in sin, but his face remains perfect - while only his portrait, locked away, reveals the blackness of his soul. The tale of Dorian Gray''s moral depravity caused a scandal when it first appeared in 1890, confronted with the rigid morality of the Victorian era. The Canterville ghost and other stories is a collection of five short stories first published in 1891. An American family buys a haunted castle in England from Lord Canterville, where creaking chains and blood stains have been terrorizing the area for centuries... But how can a poor ghost frighten pragmatic people? The other four short stories - Lord Arthur Savile''s crime, The sphinx without a secret, The model millionaire, The portrait of Mr W.H. - are extraordinary stories which also mix mystery and humor and make a witty dissection of Victorian society. Arguably the greatest farcical comedy in English, The Importance of Being Earnest, made a triumph in London since its premiere performance in 1895 and still delights readers more than a century later, with its mistaken identities, secret engagements, and lovers entanglements from Victorian England. A light-hearted satire of the absurdity of conventions, this comic play features an unforgettable cast of characters who speak nonsense twisted into fantasy, with provocative observations. These sparkling masterpieces by Oscar Wilde at the height of his art will delight readers of all ages. Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was an Irish author, playwright and poet, who built an esthete and hedonist dandy character. Inseparable from his huge literary talent, his extraordinary personality, biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversation ensured his fame.

The artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art''s aim. The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things. The highest as the lowest form of criticism is a mode of autobiography. Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only beauty. There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.

This carefully crafted ebook: "Teleny: a pornographic novel attributed to Oscar Wilde" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. Teleny is an authorless and explicitly homoerotic novel often attributed to Oscar Wilde. It is an important antithesis to the prudish idealism of the neo-classic and neo-romantic lyric love poetry of the end of the century. It is a work of unmasking the cynical double moral standards of the Victorian era: The love of Camille and Teleny is shattered by social reprisals. The book was published in 1893 in 200 copies by Leonard Smithers who praised it as being "the most powerful and cleverly written erotic romance which has appeared in the English language" during that era". Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900) is a central figure in aesthetic writing. Wilde was a poet, fiction writer, essayist and editor. Oscar Wilde is often seen as a homosexual icon although as many men of his day he was also a husband and father. Wilde''s life ended at odds with Victorian morals that surrounded him. He died in exile.

The classic book, The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde! There''s a reason why The Importance of Being Earnest is one of the best books of all time. If you haven''t read this classic, then you''d better pick up a copy of The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde today!

“Now, for the first time, we can read the version that Wilde intended...Both the text and Nicholas Frankel’s introduction make for fascinating reading.” —Paris Review More than 120 years after Oscar Wilde submitted The Picture of Dorian Gray for publication in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, the uncensored version of his novel appears here for the first time in a paperback edition. This volume restores all of the material removed by the novel’s first editor. Upon receipt of the typescript, Wilde’s editor panicked at what he saw. Contained within its pages was material he feared readers would find “offensive”—especially instances of graphic homosexual content. He proceeded to go through the typescript with his pencil, cleaning it up until he made it “acceptable to the most fastidious taste.” Wilde did not see these changes until his novel appeared in print. Wilde’s editor’s concern was well placed. Even in its redacted form, the novel caused public outcry. The British press condemned it as “vulgar,” “unclean,” “poisonous,” “discreditable,” and “a sham.” When Wilde later enlarged the novel for publication in book form, he responded to his critics by further toning down its “immoral” elements. Wilde famously said that The Picture of Dorian Gray “contains much of me”: Basil Hallward is “what I think I am,” Lord Henry “what the world thinks me,” and “Dorian what I would like to be—in other ages, perhaps.” Wilde’s comment suggests a backward glance to a Greek or Dorian Age, but also a forward-looking view to a more permissive time than his own repressive Victorian era. By implication, Wilde would have preferred we read today the uncensored version of his novel.

"This classic book is about a young man named Dorian Gray. He is the subject of a painting by artist Basil Hallward who thinks he is very good looking, with a pure beauty. One thing leads to another and Dorian embraces a new hedonism with Basil and a new group of friends. He begins to believe that the only things worth pursuing in life are beauty, fulfillment of the senses, and pleasures of the flesh ..."--

Twee jongemannen storten zich rond de eeuwwisseling in een hartstochtelijke affaire.