IntentionsOriginally published in 1891 when Wilde was at the height of his form, these brilliant essays on art, literature, criticism, and society display the flamboyant poseur's famous wit and wide learning. A leading spokesman for the English Aesthetic movement, Wilde promoted "art for art's sake" against critics who argued that art must serve a moral purpose. On every page of this collection the gifted literary stylist admirably demonstrates not only that the characteristics of art are "distinction, charm, beauty, and imaginative power," but also that criticism itself can be raised to an art form possessing these very qualities.In the opening essay, Wilde laments the "decay of Lying as an art, a science, and a social pleasure." He takes to task modern literary realists like Henry James and Emile Zola for their "monstrous worship of facts" and stifling of the imagination. What makes art wonderful, he says, is that it is "absolutely indifferent to fact, [art] invents, imagines, dreams, and keeps between herself and reality the impenetrable barrier of beautiful style, of decorative or ideal treatment."The next essay, "Pen, Pencil, and Poison," is a fascinating literary appreciation of the life of Thomas Griffiths Wainewright, a talented painter, art critic, antiquarian, friend of Charles Lamb, and - murderer.The heart of the collection is the long two-part essay titled "The Critic as Artist." In one memorable passage after another, Wilde goes to great lengths to show that the critic is every bit as much an artist as the artist himself, in some cases more so. A good critic is like a virtuoso interpreter: "When Rubinstein plays ... he gives us not merely Beethoven, but also himself, and so gives us Beethoven absolutely...made vivid and wonderful to us by a new and intense personality. When a great actor plays Shakespeare we have the same experience."Finally, in "The Truth of Masks," Wilde returns to the theme of art as artifice and creative deception. This essay focuses on the use of masks, disguises, and costume in Shakespeare.For newcomers to Wilde and those who already know his famous plays and fiction, this superb collection of his criticism offers many delights. |
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Page 4
... Everything is subordinated to us , fashioned for our use and our pleasure . Egotism itself , which is so necessary to a proper sense of human dignity , is entirely the result of indoor life . Out of doors one becomes abstract and ...
... Everything is subordinated to us , fashioned for our use and our pleasure . Egotism itself , which is so necessary to a proper sense of human dignity , is entirely the result of indoor life . Out of doors one becomes abstract and ...
Page 7
... everything , and ultimately , between encyclopædias and personal experience , he comes to the ground , having drawn his types from the family circle or from the weekly washerwoman , and having acquired an amount of useful information ...
... everything , and ultimately , between encyclopædias and personal experience , he comes to the ground , having drawn his types from the family circle or from the weekly washerwoman , and having acquired an amount of useful information ...
Page 14
... everything except language : as a novelist he can do everything , except tell a story : as an artist he is everything , except articulate . Somebody in Shakespeare - Touchstone , I think - talks about a man who is always breaking his ...
... everything except language : as a novelist he can do everything , except tell a story : as an artist he is everything , except articulate . Somebody in Shakespeare - Touchstone , I think - talks about a man who is always breaking his ...
Page 20
... everything . Goethe says somewhere- ance . In der Beschrânk_ung zeigt sich erst der Meister , ' It is in working within limits that the master reveals himself , ' and the limitation , the very condition of any art is style . However ...
... everything . Goethe says somewhere- ance . In der Beschrânk_ung zeigt sich erst der Meister , ' It is in working within limits that the master reveals himself , ' and the limitation , the very condition of any art is style . However ...
Page 22
... everything is changed . Facts are not merely finding a footing - place in History , but they are usurping the domain of Fancy , and have invaded the kingdom of Romance . Their chilling touch is over everything . They are vulgarising ...
... everything is changed . Facts are not merely finding a footing - place in History , but they are usurping the domain of Fancy , and have invaded the kingdom of Romance . Their chilling touch is over everything . They are vulgarising ...
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Common terms and phrases
absolutely admirable æsthetic æsthetic critic archæology art-critics Author beauty become century charm colour costume creation creative critical spirit culture curious Cyril dear DECAY OF LYING delightful dramatic dreams dress effect emotional England English Library Ernest everything exquisite eyes fact faculty fancy fascinated feel fiction FLORENCE MARRYAT France Gilbert give Greek HALL CAINE Hamlet HELEN MATHERS ideal imaginative imitative instinct intellectual invented J. M. BARRIE literary literature live London look LUCAS MALET Lying MAARTEN MARGARET DELAND marvellous means merely method mode modern mood moral Nature never novel OSCAR WILDE painted painter passion perfect play pleasure poet poetry poison prose purely R. L. STEVENSON realism realize RIDER HAGGARD romance RUDYARD KIPLING secret seems sense Shakespeare simply soul sphere story strange style subtle talk tells thing thought tragedy true truth Vivian W. D. HOWELLS Wainewright weary wonder writing