The Artist as Critic: Critical Writings of Oscar Wilde / Edition 1

by Oscar Wilde, Richard Ellman

Overview

Although known primarily as the irreverent but dazzlingly witty playwright who penned The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde was also an able and farsighted critic. He was an early advocate of criticism as an independent branch of literature and stressed its vital role in the creative process. Scholars continue to debate many of Wilde's critical positions.

Included in Richard Ellmann's impressive collection of Wilde's criticism, The Artist as Critic, is a wide selection of Wilde's book reviews as well as such famous longer works as "The Portrait of Mr. W.H.," "The Soul Man under Socialism," and the four essays which make up Intentions. The Artist as Critic will satisfy any Wilde fan's yearning for an essential reading of his critical work.

"Wilde . . . emerges now as not only brilliant but also revolutionary, one of the great thinkers of dangerous thoughts."—Walter Allen, New York Times Book Review

"The best of Wilde's nonfictional prose can be found in The Artist as Critic."—Michael Dirda, Washington Post Book World

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226897646
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	05/01/1998
Series:	Phoenix Fiction Series
Edition description:	REPRINT
Pages:	474
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

The ever-quotable Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was an Irish playwright, novelist, essayist, and poet who delighted Victorian England with his legendary wit. He found critical and popular success with his scintillating plays, chiefly The Importance of Being Earnest, while his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, scandalized readers. Imprisoned for two years for homosexual behavior, Wilde moved to France after his release, where he died destitute.

Date of Birth:

October 16, 1854

Date of Death:

November 30, 1900

Place of Birth:

Dublin, Ireland

Place of Death:

Paris, France

Education:

The Royal School in Enniskillen, Dublin, 1864; Trinity College, Dublin, 1871; Magdalen College, Oxford, England, 1874

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Critic as Artist as Wilde, by Richard Ellmann
The Tomb of Keats (1877)
Impressions of America (1883)
Mr. Whistler's Ten O'Clock (1885)
The Relation of Dress to Art. A Note in Black and White on Mr. Whistler's Lecture (1885)
Dinners and Dishes (1885)
[George Saintsbury:] "Half Hours with the Worst Authors" (1886)
To Read, or Not to Read (1886)
Balzac in English (1886)
Ben Jonson (1886)
Two Biographies of Sir Philip Sidney (1886)
The Poets and the People (1887)
A New Book on Dickens (1887)
A Cheap Edition of a Great Man [Rossetti] (1887)
The American Invasion (1887)
The American Man (1887)
The Butterfly's Boswell (1887)
The Rout of the R[oyal] A[cademy] (1887)
William Morris's Odyssey (1887)
[Dostoevsky's The Insulted and Injured] (1887)
Mr. Mahaffy's New Book [Greek Life and Thought] (1887)
The Poet's Corner (1888)
M. Caro on George Sand (1888)
[Poems by Henley and Sharp] (1888)
English Poetesses (1888)
London Models (1889)
Poetry and Prison (1889)
The Gospel According to Walt Whitman (1889)
The New President [of the Royal Society of British Artists] (1889)
[Yeats's Fairy and Folk Tales] (1889)
Mr. Froude's Blue Book [on Ireland] (1889)
Ouida's New Novel [Guilderoy] (1889)
Mr. Swinburne's Last Volume (1889)
[Yeats's The Wanderings of Oisin] (1889)
The Portrait of Mr W.H. (1921)
A Chinese Sage [Confucius] (1890)
Mr. Pater's Last Volume [Appreciations]
Preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891)
[Defense of Dorian Gray] (letters to the press, 1890)
The Soul of Man under Socialism (1891)
Intentions (1891)
The Decay of Lying
Pen Pencil and Poison
The Critic as Artist
The Truth of Masks
Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young (1894)
[Oscar Wilde on the Witness Stand] (1895)

Editorial Reviews

Gr 7 Up Lovers of Oscar Wilde's stories will delight in this new illustrated version of The Canterville Ghost if the picture book format does not keep them from finding it. Wilde's story of an American family who moves into Canterville Chase and annoys a weary ghost with their lack of belief in him is a wry commentary on the ways of British nobility and of their hard-headed American cousins. Like many of Wilde's tales, this one is filled with sophisticated allusions to his social and political milieu, but ends as sentimental romance. Zwerger's wry pictures highlight this tone beautifully. Her toothless ghost is round and comical, as would suit a ghost whom no one fears, and her heroine, Virginia, is young and sweetly boyish. All of the illustrations are set against misty gray watercolor backgrounds except for the climactic scene, echoed on the front cover, in which the tiny huntsmen on the wallpaper call out to Virginia to ``Go Back.'' This will make a fine read-aloud for audiences of secondary students who are prepared to savor Wilde's ironic humor and Zwerger's delicate watercolors. Barbara Chatton, College of Education, University of Wyoming, Laramie

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