Bøker av Oscar Wilde

Although Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) created a wide range of poetry, essays, and fairy tales (and one novel) in his brief, tragic life, he is perhaps best known as a dramatist. His witty, clever drama, populated by brilliant talkers skilled in the art of riposte and paradox, are still staples of the theatrical repertoire. An Ideal Husband revolves around a blackmail scheme that forces a married couple to reexamine their moral standards - providing, along the way, a wry commentary on the rarity of politicians who can claim to be ethically pure. A supporting cast of young lovers, society matrons, an overbearing father, and a formidable femme fatale continually exchange sparkling repartee, keeping the play moving at a lively pace. Like most of Wilde's plays, this scintillating drawing-room comedy is wise, well-constructed, and deeply satisfying. An instant success at its 1895 debut, the play continues to delight audiences over one hundred years later. An Ideal Husband is a must-read book for Wilde fans, students of English literature, and anyone delighted by wit, urbanity, and timeless sophistication.

""The Soul of Man Under Socialism"" is an 1891 essay by Oscar Wilde in which he expounds a libertarian socialist worldview and a critique of charity. The writing of ""The Soul of Man"" followed Wilde's conversion to anarchist philosophy, following his reading of the works of Peter Kropotkin. In ""The Soul of Man"" Wilde argues that, under capitalism, ""the majority of people spoil their lives by an unhealthy and exaggerated altruism are forced, indeed, so to spoil them"" instead of realising their true talents, they waste their time solving the social problems caused by capitalism, without taking their common cause away. Thus, caring people ""seriously and very sentimentally set themselves to the task of remedying the evils that they see in poverty, but their remedies do not cure the disease: they merely prolong it"" because, as Wilde puts it, ""the proper aim is to try and reconstruct society on such a basis that poverty will be impossible.""

Salome is a one-act tragedy by Oscar Wilde. The original 1891 version of the play was in French; an English translation was published three years later. The play depicts the attempted seduction of Jokanaan (John the Baptist) by Salome, step-daughter of Herod Antipas; her dance of the seven veils; the execution of Jokanaan at Salome's instigation; and her death on Herod's orders. The first production was in Paris in 1896. Because the play depicted biblical characters it was banned in Britain and was not performed publicly there until 1931. The play became popular in Germany, and Wilde's text was taken by the composer Richard Strauss as the basis of his 1905 opera Salome, the international success of which has tended to overshadow Wilde's original play. Film and other adaptations have been made of the play. About the author:Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 - 30 November 1900) was an Irish writer, poet and prominent aesthete. Born in Dublin, his parents were successful intellectuals, and from an early age he showed his intelligence, becoming bilingual in French and German, then an outstanding classicist, first at Dublin, then at Oxford. After university, Wilde moved around trying his hand a various literary activities: he published a book of poems, lectured extensively, and wrote journalism prolifically. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress, and glittering conversation Wilde had become one of the most well-known personalities of his day. Though it was his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray - still widely read - that brought him more lasting recognition. He became one of the most successful playwrights of the late Victorian era in London with a series of hilarious social satires which continue to be performed, especially The Importance of Being Earnest. At the height of his fame and success, he suffered a dramatic downfall in a sensational series of trials. Wilde was imprisoned for two years' hard labor after being convicted of "gross indecency" with other men. In prison he wrote De Profundis, a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure. After release from prison he set sail for Dieppe by the night ferry, never to return to Ireland or Britain. In France he wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol, a long, terse poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life, but no further creative work. He died in Paris a broken, penniless man. He was only forty-six years old.

You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you have never had the courage to commit.A perfect depiction of fin-de-siècle decadence, Oscar Wilde's only novel highlights the tension between the polished surface and murky depths of Victorian high society.The picture of Dorian Gray is Oscar Wilde's classic story of a young man whose beauty prompts a painter to paint a life-like portrait of him. However, all is not what it seems...Dorian expresses the desire to sell his soul, to ensure that the picture, rather than he, will age andfade. The novel is a social satire as well as a key Explorer of Victorian norms. We are made to observe human emotions like love, jealousy, hate and the forces of evil and good. Oscar Wilde propagates his 'art for art's sake' theory, even as he weaves a narrative around a beautiful young man (Dorian Gray) and his friends (Lord Henry and Basil). The book is a classic in the true sense of the word, as it appeals to the universal instincts of man.

De Profundis' is a 50,000-word letter composed by Oscar Wilde during his detainment in Reading Gaol, to Lord Alfred Douglas, his sweetheart. Wilde composed the letter between January and March in the year 1897; he was not permitted to send it yet took it with him upon discharge. In it he renounces Lord Alfred for what Wilde, at last, sees as his haughtiness and vanity; he had not forgotten Douglas' comment, when he was sick, "When you are not on your pedestal you are not interesting." He felt reclamation and satisfaction in his difficult times, understanding that his difficulty had filled the spirit with the product of involvement, but unpleasant it tasted at that point.

The Duchess of Padua' is a play by Oscar Wilde. It is a five-act sensational tragedy set in Padua and written in a blank verse. It was composed for the female actor Mary Anderson in mid-1883 while in Paris. After she turned it down, it was deserted until its first-ever performance at the Broadway Theater in New York under the title 'Guido Ferranti' on 26 January 1891, where it ran for a long time. It has been seldom performed or studied. The Duchess of Padua elucidates the tale of a young fellow named Guido who was left in the charge of a man he calls his uncle as a child. Guido gets a notice to meet a man in Padua concerning something concerning his parentage. When he shows up in Padua he is persuaded by a man named, Moranzone, to forsake his only friend, Ascanio, to destine himself to vindicate his father's murder committed by Simone Gesso, the Duke of Padua. Over the play, Guido observes he has become hopelessly enamored with Beatrice, the title character, and trusts his affection for her, an adoration which she returns. At this point, Guido has had a shift in perspective and chooses not to kill the Duke of Padua, and on second thought expects to stab his father's knife at the Duke's bedside to tell the Duke that his life might have been taken if Guido had needed to kill him. While heading to the bed-chamber, Guido comes across Beatrice, who herself killed the Duke so she may accompany Guido. Guido is dismayed at the transgression committed for his sake and leaves Beatrice, assuring that their affection has been spoilt. She runs away and when she comes across certain gatekeepers, she asserts that Guido killed the Duke. Wilde himself depicted the play to Anderson: "I have no hesitation in saying that it is the masterpiece of all my literary work, the chef-d'oeuvre of my youth." Mary Anderson, in any case, was less energetic: "The play in its present form, I fear, would no more please the public of today than would 'Venus Preserved' or 'Lucretia Borgia'. Neither of us can afford failure now, and your Duchess in my hands would not succeed, as the part does not fit me. My admiration of your ability is as great as ever."William Winter reviewed the first production in The New York Tribune on 27 January 1891: "The new play is deftly developed in five short demonstrations and is written in a type of blank verse that is generally resonant, frequently persuasive, and at times freighted with whimsical figures of uncommon magnificence. It is less a tragedy but a melodrama...the radical deformity of the work is untrustworthiness. Nobody in it is natural." The Duchess of Padua is not regarded as one of Wilde's major works, and has rarely been performed or discussed. Leonée Ormond suggests several reasons for this: it is "quite unlike the plays for which Wilde is most famous, and biographers and critics have been inclined to say that it is unstageable, that it draws too heavily upon Shakespeare, Jacobean tragedy and Shelley's The Cenci ." Robert Shore remarked on the actual play while surveying an intriguing contemporary production:"......his tale of Renaissance realpolitik, revenge, and big love is about as far removed from the sophisticated social ironies of The Importance of Being Earnest as you can get. The dramatist affects the high Jacobean manner but the results are more cold pastiche than hot homage. Shakespearean archetypes stand behind the action - especially Lady Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet - but the smoothness of the verse means Wilde's characters never burn with the knotty tormented passion of their dramatic forebears. It's Victorian melodrama." However, Joseph Pearce is more responsive to Wilde's Shakespearian impact: "Unfortunately, the derivativeness of The Duchess of Padua has devalued it in the eyes of the critics...Yet if The Duchess of Padua is an imitation of Shakespeare, it is a very good imitation."

NA

NA

In this celebrated work Wilde forged a devastating portrait of the effects of evil and debauchery on a young aesthete in late-19th-century England.Combining elements of the Gothic horror novel and decadent French fiction, the book centers on a striking premise: As Dorian Gray sinks into a life of crime and gross sensuality, his body retains perfect youth and vigor while his recently painted portrait grows day by day into a hideous record of evil, which he must keep hidden from the world.For over a century, this mesmerizing tale of horror and suspense has enjoyed wide popularity. It ranks as one of Wilde's most important creations and among the classic achievements of its kind.