Oscar Wilde Books

In this selection of Wilde's aphorisms and epigrams culled from his plays, novels, stories, reviews and letters, as well as from hitherto unpublished material, Owen Dudley Edwards fully conveys the breadth and humanity of Wilde's mind, and in an introductory essay he shows the place of Wilde's pyrotechnics in his thought and in his art. He sees that fireworks decade, the 1890s, as strikingly symbolized by Wilde's style as it was dominated by his life.

Throughout the two decades from 1964 to 1984, Fontana published a remarkable skein of ghost story collections, piloted by R. Aikman and later by R. Chetwynd-Hayes, no mean supernatural authors themselves. Some of the paperbacks in this series, which winds its way up to the "20th Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories" are now collectors' items and worth over a hundred dollars apiece.

For this fourth book in the series, Robert Aickman selected eleven supernatural tales, including Alexander Pushkin's "The Queen of Spades" which was also made into an opera--an unusual fate for a ghost story!

These are the tales in the 4th Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories:

"The Accident" by Ann Bridge--Many great ghost stories are set in the Alps and this is one of them. A pair of climbers, brother and sister, come across a set of tracks that begin in an open snowfield, near the place where two other climbers had fallen to their deaths a month earlier. Then the sister begins to receive postcards from one of the dead climbers.

"Not on the Passenger List" by Barry Pain--A young widow takes passage on a ship to England, where she is to remarry. Her late husband appears in her cabin and tries to persuade her to drown herself.

"The Sphinx without a Secret" by Oscar Wilde--Aikman cheated by including this story, which has no ghost. A mysterious young woman is confronted by her fiancé, who breaks off their engagement.

"When I was Dead" by Vincent O'Sullivan--A young man witnesses his own funeral.

"The Queen of Spades" by Alexander Pushkin--An 87-year-old Countess dies before revealing her supposed secret for winning at cards. Her ghost appears to the man who frightened her to death, revealing the cards he needed to play in order to win a fortune. Would you trust the ghost of the woman you frightened to death?

"Pargiton and Harby" by Desmond MacCarthy-- Harby meets his old friend, Pargiton who seems to be making amends for an ill-spent life. Pargiton begs Harby to visit him, because he seems to bring out the best in the reformed evil-doer. Harby comes, but so does something else.

"The Snow" by Hugh Walpole--The two Mrs. Ryders, one of them dead, battle over their meek, inoffensive husband.

"Carlton's Father" by Eric Ambrose--I would classify this story as science fiction, since it involves a time warp, disguised as a room in Carlton's house, where no-one ages.

"A School Story" by M.R. James--Two men reminisce over the ghost stories that were told about their public schools. One of them concerns a master with a homicidal past.

"The Wolves of Cernogratz" by Saki--Wolves howl around the castle when one of the Cernogratz family dies.

"Mad Monkton" by William Wilkie Collins--Generations of the reclusive Monkton family suffered from hereditary insanity. Alfred, last of the Monkton line falls in love with the beautiful young Ada, but before he can propose to her, he must travel to Italy to recover the body of his Uncle Stephen, the black sheep of the Monkton family, who was killed in a duel. Everyone thinks Alfred is crazy for trying to recover the body, but an old family prophecy and the ghost of Uncle Stephen urge him onward.

The Duckworth publication has a few nice, elaborate, and elegant line drawings (and 3 color plates) by Phillipe Julian.

The complete collection of his fairy tales is a treasure. Children should know the Nightingale and the Rose and the Selfish Giant just as they know Cinderella and Snow White. These are tragic tales, but so beautifully told.

Atheists who want their kids to be the same might not want them to see these stories, as Wilde writes of heaven and Jesus Christ. But that would be a disservice to the child... this is great literature.

Though the theaters around the world continue to produce the plays of Oscar Wilde and even the Opera houses consider Strauss' adaptation of Wilde's "Salome" as a staple in the repertoire, and while biographies and films about this unique artist increase in number with every year, this book approaches yet another aspect of Wilde's genius. Charlotte Gere has researched the Aesthetic Movement in England at the turn of the century and attributes the style and popularity of the 'new look' in home decor to Wilde and his entourage. From paintings to furniture to wallpaper to fabric to book design - all the art nouveau trends were at times created by Wilde and at other times merely popularized by him on his numerous tours. The book is resplendent in illustrations of paintings, homes, photographs, and a lot of just fine biographical data about Oscar Wilde. A thoroughly informative and entertaining slant on The Importance of Being Oscar!

This is a renamed edition of Engel's fine 2002 book, "A Dab of Dickens & A Touch of Twain: Literary Lives from Shakespeare's Old England to Frost's New England." I purchased this thinking Engel had written a sequel, but sadly, it is not the case.

"An Ideal Husband" and "A Woman of No Importance" are two of Oscar Wilde's best plays. Both plays take place in the 1890's but their characters and commentaries about society are timeless. Extremely well-written, the characters seem to come alive as you read, as though you're actually seeing the play performed in front of you. These plays are comedies that will leaving you laughing for days, yet they are also filled with drama and will leave you on the edge of your seat.

"The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People" is one of the first plays written in English since the works of Shakespeare that celebrates the language itself. Oscar Wilde's comedy has one advantage over the classic comedies of the Bard in that "The Importance of Being Earnest" is as funny today as it was when it was first performed at the St. Jame's Theater in London on February 14, 1895. After all, enjoying Shakespeare requires checking the bottom for footnotes explaining the meaning of those dozens of words that Shakespeare makes up in any one of his plays. But Wilde's brilliant wit, his humor and social satire, remain intact even though he was a writer of the Victorian era.

Wilde believed in art for art's own sake, which explains why he emphasized beauty while his contemporaries were dealing with the problems of industrial England. "The Importance of Being Earnest" is set among the upper class, making fun of their excesses and absurdities while imbuing them with witty banter providing a constant stream of epigrams. The play's situation is simple in its unraveling complexity. Algernon Moncrieff is an upper-class English bachelor who is visited by his friend Jack Worthing, who is known as "Ernest." Jack has come to town to propose to Gwendolen Fairfax, the daugher of the imposing Lady Bracknell and Algy's first cousin. Jack has a ward named Cecily who lives in the country while Algernon has an imaginary friend named "Bunbury" whom he uses as an excuse to get out of social engagements.

Jack proposes to Gwendolen but has two problems. First, Gwendolen is wiling to agree because his name is Ernest, a name that "seems to inspire absolute confidence," but which, of course, is not his true Christian name. Second, Lady Bracknell objects to Jack as a suitor when she learns he was abandoned by his parents and found in a handbag in Victoria Station by Mr. Thomas Cardew. Meanwhile, Algernon heads off to the country to check out Cecily, to whom he introduces himself as being her guardian Jack's brother Ernest. This meets with Ceclily's approval because in her diary she has been writing about her engagement to a man named Ernest. Then things get really interesting.

Wilde proves once and for all time that the pun can indeed be elevated to a high art form. Throughout the entire play we have the double meaning of the word "earnest," almost to the level of a conceit, since many of the play's twists and turns deal with the efforts of Jack and Algernon to be "Ernest," by lying, only to discover that circumstances makes honest men of them in the end (and of the women for that matter as well). There is every reason to believe that Wilde was making a point about earnestness being a key ideal of Victorian culture and one worthy of being thoroughly and completely mocked. Granted, some of the puns are really bad, and the discussion of "Bunburying" is so bad it is stands alone in that regard, but there is a sense in which the bad ones only make the good ones so glorious and emphasize that Wilde is at his best while playing games with the English language.

But if Wilde's puns are the low road then his epigrams represent the heights of his genius, especially when they are used by the characters in an ironic vein (e.g., "It is very romantic to be in love. But there is nothing romantic about a definite proposal" and "I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance"). Jack is the male lead, but it is Algernon who represents the ideal Wilde character, who insists he is a rebel speaking out against the institutions of society, such as marriage, but with attacks that are so flamboyant and humorous that the cleverness of the humor ends up standing apart from the inherent point.

In the end, "The Importance of Being Earnest" is the wittiest play every written, in English or any other language, and I doubt that anything written in the future will come close. Wilde was essentially a stand-up comedian who managed to create a narrative in which he could get off dozens of classic one-liners given a high-class sheen by being labeled epigrams. Like a comedian he touches on several topics, from the aristocracy, marriage, and the literary world to English manners, women, love, religion, and anything else that came to his fertile mind. But because it is done with such a lighthearted tone that the barbs remain as timely today as they were at the end of the 19th-century and "The Importance of Being Earnest" will always be at the forefront of the plays of that time which will continue to be produced.

This play is the second I read in my life, but I am sure it is one of the best ever written!
It is witty and funny, a social satire everybody should read.
Wilde played with words and stereotypes in a wonderful manner.
Two thumbs up!

I think that there is nothing that I can say about Oscar Wilde that has not already been said by others (and probably in a more eloquent way). So why should I bother to review this book?

Because I want to tell you that I like it. Before picking up this Modern Library edition of `The Importance of Being Earnest' I had no experience with Wilde at all, save for the fact that `The Portrait of Dorian Gray' bears the distinction of being on my book shelf, unread, in the neighborhood of 8 years. That is really no distinction at all.

So why is it that upon finishing this book I immediately picked that one up and tore through it?

Because Wilde is that good.

Wilde was the original bigger-than-life-gay-man entertainer (someone compared him to an early Elton John). He lived with flamboyance and, more importantly, wrote with it. His plays exude humor, the characters fighting out delicate word-sword-plays using finely honed wits that jab, stab, and pirouette away, leaving the audience (in this case, the reader) feeling dizzy and delighted. There are classic one-liners ("But I don't like German. It isn't at all a becoming language. I know perfectly well that I look quite plain after my German lesson") or more witty exchanges between characters (Cecily: "I hope your hair curls naturally, does it?" Algernon: "Yes, darling, with a little help from others.") Of course, these are all the more funny when piled upon one another; I can guarantee you that by the end of `Earnest' you will be rolling on the floor.

Each of the plays is great, each in its own right. `Lady Windermere's Fan' is an almost cloak and dagger play, with people dodging out of sight while others step forward to take their fall in the spotlight, proving their worth perhaps only to the audience, who is able to appreciate what they've done, if no other can. `An Ideal Husband' illustrates the two sides of judgment; that it can be reversed in such a quick manner that you may wish to watch yourself and your opinions of others. `Earnest' probably needs no explaining; it is, quite simply, one of the best plays written in our language.

Content aside (shame on me for saying that others said better and there I go, talking...) the Modern Library indeed delivers on it's namesake: this book is handsomely bound and the introduction by Terrance McNally helps to introduce the new reader (me!) to this prolific writer, orienting him/her to be able to tell whether they would rather read `Dorian Gray' or `De Profundis' next. It also gives a sketch of the writer's life, filling in the details that might not be known to those who have never had a proper introduction to the writer.

Bottom Line: Some form of this play belongs in any serious literary collection. Get it!

-LP

"The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People" is one of the few plays written in English since the works of Shakespeare that celebrates the language itself. Oscar Wilde's comedy has one advantage over the classic comedies of the Bard in that "The Importance of Being Earnest" is as funny today as it was when it was first performed at the St. Jame's Theater in London on February 14, 1895. After all, enjoying Shakespeare requires checking the bottom for footnotes explaining the meaning of those dozens of words that Shakespeare makes up in any one of his plays. But Wilde's brilliant wit, his humor and social satire, remain intact even though he was a writer of the Victorian era.

Wilde believed in art for art's own sake, which explains why he emphasized beauty while his contemporaries were dealing with the problems of industrial England. "The Importance of Being Earnest" is set among the upper class, making fun of their excesses and absurdities while imbuing them with witty banter providing a constant stream of epigrams. The play's situation is simple in its unraveling complexity. Algernon Moncrieff is an upper-class English bachelor who is visited by his friend Jack Worthing, who is known as "Ernest." Jack has come to town to propose to Gwendolen Fairfax, the daugher of the imposing Lady Bracknell and Algy's first cousin. Jack has a ward named Cecily who lives in the country while Algernon has an imaginary friend named "Bunbury" whom he uses as an excuse to get out of social engagements.

Jack proposes to Gwendolen but has two problems. First, Gwendolen is wiling to agree because his name is Ernest, a name that "seems to inspire absolute confidence," but which, of course, is not his true Christian name. Second, Lady Bracknell objects to Jack as a suitor when she learns he was abandoned by his parents and found in a handbag in Victoria Station by Mr. Thomas Cardew. Meanwhile, Algernon heads off to the country to check out Cecily, to whom he introduces himself as being her guardian Jack's brother Ernest. This meets with Ceclily's approval because in her diary she has been writing about her engagement to a man named Ernest. Then things get really interesting.

Wilde proves once and for all time that the pun can indeed be elevated to a high art form. Throughout the entire play we have the double meaning of the word "earnest," almost to the level of a conceit, since many of the play's twists and turns deal with the efforts of Jack and Algernon to be "Ernest," by lying, only to discover that circumstances makes honest men of them in the end (and of the women for that matter as well). There is every reason to believe that Wilde was making a point about earnestness being a key ideal of Victorian culture and one worthy of being thoroughly and completely mocked. Granted, some of the puns are really bad, and the discussion of "Bunburying" is so bad it is stands alone in that regard, but there is a sense in which the bad ones only make the good ones so glorious and emphasize that Wilde is at his best while playing games with the English language.

But if Wilde's puns are the low road then his epigrams represent the heights of his genius, especially when they are used by the characters in an ironic vein (e.g., "It is very romantic to be in love. But there is nothing romantic about a definite proposal" and "I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance"). Jack is the male lead, but it is Algernon who represents the ideal Wilde character, who insists he is a rebel speaking out against the institutions of society, such as marriage, but with attacks that are so flamboyant and humorous that the cleverness of the humor ends up standing apart from the inherent point.

In the end, "The Importance of Being Earnest" is the wittiest play every written, in English or any other language, and I doubt that anything written in the future will come close. Wilde was essentially a stand-up comedian who managed to create a narrative in which he could get off dozens of classic one-liners given a high-class sheen by being labeled epigrams. Like a comedian he touches on several topics, from the aristocracy, marriage, and the literary world to English manners, women, love, religion, and anything else that came to his fertile mind. But because it is done with such a lighthearted tone that the barbs remain as timely today as they were at the end of the 19th-century and "The Importance of Being Earnest" will always be at the forefront of the plays of that time which will continue to be produced.