|
| |
Oscar Wilde
Biography:
Born 1854, Dublin, Ireland. Educated at Trinity College in
Dublin and Magdalen College in Oxford. During his years in Oxford he became known for an
unusual behavior and attire. Was a leading member of the "art for art's sake"
movement. His unusual style provided him with a cult following. Private life
marked with many scandals, he spent two years in prison for homosexual practices.
He eventually married Constance Lloyd and had two sons, Cyril and Vyvyan.
Wrote several
children’s stories for his sons which became classic children's fairy stories. He
changed his name to Sebastian Melmoth prior to his death in 1900. |
The Artist As Critic:
Critical Writings of Oscar Wilde
Paperback - 446 pages
(January 1983) $19.00
|
The Ballad of Reading Gaol and Other Poems
Paperback - 54 pages (February 1992) $0.80
BARE BONES PRICE !
|
The Cambridge Companion to Oscar Wilde
Part One places 19th-century dramatist and writer
Oscar Wilde's work within the cultural and historical context of his time
and includes an opening essay by Wilde's grandson, Merlin Holland. The
rest of the book examines the themes and factors that shaped Wilde's work,
including his view of the Victorian woman, his conflicting sexual
identities, and the interpretation of his work in performance. 20 photos.
Paperback - 323 pages (November 1997) $18.95
|
Canterville Ghost
"Although first published in 1891, this ghost story remains a classic
of Wilde wit and Victorian sentimentality. True, some of the references to
melodrama and nineteenth-century Anglo-American attitudes may elude modern
readers, but the basic story of a hardheaded American family that buys a
haunted British manor house and proceeds to drive the resident ghost
nearly crazy with its skepticism is still a delight, as are Wilde's
epigrams: "We have really everything in common with America nowadays,
except, of course, language." Austrian illustrator Zwerger, a master
of the exquisite line, has captured the look of the period and the
liveliness of the story in this oversize volume." (Michael Cart, American
Library Association)
Paperback (June 1970) $3.95
|
Complete Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde
Oscar
Wilde, best known for his acerbic, witty plays and urbane nonfiction, was
also a master of the fairy tale. This volume brings together all of
Wilde's tales from his two collections - The Happy Prince and The
House of Pomegranates - and retains the evocative illustrations done
for the original editions.
Mass Market Paperback - 221 pages (May 1996) $4.76
|
Complete Poetry
A
powerful poem of universal guilt and a protest against capital punishment,
The Ballad of Reading Gaol is Wilde's best-known poem, yet it is
quite unlike the rest of his poetry. At Oxford Wilde discarded the passion
and politics of his mother's Irish nationalistic anti-famine poetry and
opted to follow an English Romantic tradition, paying tribute to Keats,
Swinburne, and the Pre-Raphaelites. Admiration of French masters gradually
led to his writing Impressionist, even decadent poems and his collection
Poems (1881) brought accusations of obscenity and plagiarism as well as
scathing reviews. Unabashed, Wilde revised and reprinted his final
"Author's Edition" in 1892, by which time he was the successful
author of fiction, criticism, and Lady Windermere's Fan.
This volume follows as closely as possible the
chronological order of composition, highlighting autobiographical elements
including the young Wilde's conflicting attitudes to Greece and Rome,
pagan and Christian, and his fluctuating attraction to Roman Catholicism.
The Appendix shows Wilde's original ordering, constructed with great care
around a 'musical' arrangement of themes. The poems reveal unexpected
aspects of a literary chameleon usually identified with sparkling wit and
social comedy.
List of Poems:
Paperback (January 1999) $7.96
|
Complete Works of Oscar Wilde:
Stories, Plays, Poems and Essays
Here is a
collection of this witty and irreverent author's works - all in their most
authoritative texts. Includes The Picture of Dorian Gray, The
Importance of Being Earnest, and other stories and essays.
Paperback - 1216 pages (September 1989) $20.00
|
De Profundis
Paperback - 92 pages (January
1997) $0.80
BARE BONES PRICE !
|
The Decay of Lying
Paperback - 64 pages (March 1996)
$3.16
|
The Picture of Dorian Gray
A lush,
cautionary tale of a life of vileness and deception or a loving portrait
of the aesthetic impulse run rampant? Why not both? After Basil Hallward
paints a beautiful, young man's portrait, his subject's frivolous wish
that the picture change and he remain the same comes true. Dorian Gray's
picture grows aged and corrupt while he continues to appear fresh and
innocent. After he kills a young woman, "as surely as if I had cut
her little throat with a knife," Dorian Gray is surprised to find no
difference in his vision or surroundings. "The roses are not less
lovely for all that. The birds sing just as happily in my garden."
As Hallward tries to make sense of his creation,
his epigram-happy friend Lord Henry Wotton encourages Dorian in his
sensual quest with any number of Wildean paradoxes, including the
delightful "When we are happy we are always good, but when we are
good we are not always happy." But despite its many languorous
pleasures, The Picture of Dorian Gray is an imperfect work.
Compared to the two (voyeuristic) older men, Dorian is a bore, and his
search for ever new sensations far less fun than the novel's drawing-room
discussions. Even more oddly, the moral message of the novel contradicts
many of Wilde's supposed aims, not least "no artist has ethical
sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism
of style." Nonetheless, the glamour boy gets his just deserts. And
Wilde, defending Dorian Gray, had it both ways: "All excess, as well
as all renunciation, brings its own punishment."
Paperback - 165 pages (November 1993) $0.80
BARE BONES PRICE !
|
The Happy Prince and Other Fairy Tales
Presents
Wilde's Happy Prince, Nightingale and the Rose, Selfish
Giant, Remarkable Rocket, and Birthday of the Infanta.
Paperback - 89 pages (May 1993) $0.80
BARE BONES PRICE !
|
I Can Resist Everything Except Temptation - And Other Quotations from Oscar Wilde
Lovingly compiled by Karl Beckson from Oscar Wilde's plays, novels,
essays, short fiction, and letters, I Can Resist Everything Except
Temptation contains more than 1,000 examples of Wilde's famously pithy
wit. All the familiar barbs are here - "Work is the curse of the
drinking classes of this country" - as well as arch indictments of
his age's prevailing style and mores. But the book contains more poignant
examples of Wilde's bon mots as well - for instance, these lines on his
own imprisonment: "This too I know - and wise it were / If each could
know the same / That every prison that men build/Is built with bricks of
shame, / And bound with bars lest Christ should see / How men their
brothers maim." Each entry includes a source citation, making this an
excellent entry point for those unfamiliar with Wilde's work - and a
pleasing interlude with an old friend for longtime Wilde fans.
Hardcover - 224 pages (February 1997) $14.70
|
An Ideal Husband
A dazzling blend of farce and morality, An Ideal Husband explores
human frailty and social hypocrisy. Sir Robert Chilton's secret is
discovered and exposed: he is accused of having exploited government
secrets for his own gain early in his political career. With this
revelation from Mrs. Cheveley comes the threat of blackmail and the ruin
of Sir Robert's career. Yet in order to be a successful blackmailer, one's
own reputation must be beyond reproach.
Paperback (July 1999) $7.16
|
Importance of Being Earnest
Play in three acts by Oscar Wilde,
performed in 1895 and published in 1899. A satire of Victorian social
hypocrisy, the witty play is considered Wilde's greatest dramatic
achievement. Jack Worthing is a fashionable young man who lives in the
country with his ward Cecily Cardew. He has invented a rakish brother
named Ernest whose supposed exploits give Jack an excuse to travel to
London periodically. Jack is in love with Gwendolen Fairfax, the cousin of
his friend Algernon Moncrieff. Gwendolen, who thinks Jack's name is
Ernest, returns his love, but her mother, Lady Bracknell, objects to their
marriage because Jack is an orphan who was found in a handbag at Victoria
Station. Jack discovers that Algernon has been impersonating Ernest in
order to woo Cecily, who has always been in love with the imaginary
Ernest. Ultimately it is revealed that Jack is really Lady Bracknell's
nephew, that his real name is Ernest, and that Algernon is actually his
brother. The play ends with both couples happily united. (The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature)
Paperback - 54 pages (January 1991) $0.80
BARE BONES PRICE !
|
The Importance of Being a Wit:
The Insults of Oscar Wilde
Oscar
Wilde was the master of the studied insult. His jabs at hypocrisy,
pretense, and boring conventionality still have a penetrating power. His
snubs and put-downs became the talk of his time, no less by his targets
than by Oscar Wilde himself. This collection features over 750 biting
comments gathered from the master's works. Illustrations throughout.
Paperback - 160 pages 1 Carroll edition (April 1997) $8.76
|
Lady Windermere's Fan
Comedy of
manners in four acts by Oscar Wilde, performed in 1892 and published the
following year. Set in London, the play's action is put in motion by Lady
Windermere's jealousy over her husband's interest in Mrs. Erlynne, a
beautiful older woman with a mysterious past. Unknown to Lady Windermere,
Mrs. Erlynne is really her divorced mother who, for the past 20 years, has
been presumed dead. Lord Windermere is merely hoping to ease the older
woman's reentrance into society, which she attempts under a pseudonym. In
a fit of pique, Lady Windermere goes to the rooms of her ardent admirer,
Lord Darlington. Mrs. Erlynne follows closely, saving her daughter from
scandal by an act of generosity that ruins her own chances. (The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature)
Paperback (May 1998) $0.80
BARE BONES PRICE !
|
Oscar Wilde's Wit and Wisdom:
A Book of Quotations
In this
superlative collection of nearly 400 quotations by the great Irish
playwright and wit, readers will find the very best of Wilde's
scintillating comments on art, human nature, morals, society, politics,
history, and numerous other subjects, including gems from his personal
life.
Paperback (May 1998) $0.80
BARE BONES PRICE !
|
Salome
Paperback - 64 pages
(June 1989) $4.95
|
Two Plays by Oscar Wilde:
An Ideal Husband and a Woman of No Importance
Two
classic drawing room comedies feature characters hiding terrible secrets
that could cost them their reputation and happiness, collected in a double
volume that includes an introduction and two interviews with the
playwright. Original.
Written in the late 1800's, An Ideal Husband
and A Woman of No Importance are peppered with the unmistakable wit
and satire that made Oscar Wilde one of the most famous literary figures
of his era. Now available together for the first time in this unique
Signet Classic edition, both plays - centered on characters hiding
terrible, scandalous secrets - offer dark foreshadowing of the dramatic
course Wilde's own life was to take.
Paperback - 320 pages (July 1997) $3.96 |
Selfish Giant
"Ages 6-8. The familiar Wilde tale is well served by Gallagher's
illustrations, in which the clothing and the faces of the children who
come into the blooming garden are in strong contrast to the costumes and
figures of the people who rule the wintry landscape after the selfish
giant has exiled the children. The giant's size is also well handled: it's
clear that every adult looks like a giant to a child. The story's ending,
which implies that the child has returned to take the giant to Paradise,
should be noted as a departure from what some readers expect in the giant
genre." (Mary Harris Veeder)
Paperback Reprint edition (May 1991) $4.95 |
|
