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The Happy Prince is the tale of a young nobleman, who in life sought only pleasure but in death, as a gold-encrusted statue, provides aid to the needy. Also included are The Nightingale and the Rose, The Selfish Giant, The Devoted Friend, and The Remarkable Rocket. Newly designed and typeset in a modern 5.5-by-8.5-inch format by Waking Lion Press. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

An enjoyable mix
This anthology collects Wilde's shorter and generally earlier writings. It's an eclectic mix (but what did you expect?), in a number of styles.

The first few pieces adopt a faux archaic language, lending a faux antiquity to these "fairy tales." In an anachronistic mix of styles, Wilde delivers talking animals and other cuteness as modern fairy tales demand - but an underlying chill, a memory of the adult horror that such stories had in the ages when only a glimmer of fire kept the night terrors at bay. One longish (25 page) story breaks up this section, the "Portrait of Mr. W. H." When that became tedious, I skipped ahead to the next writings in that classicoid style. BTW, P. Craig Russell has done graphic adaptations of some of these stories, and I recommend them highly

The book's next 60 pages, "Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories," present four brief tales in which many readers will recognize Wilde's wiles. They are drawing-room comedies of manners. They're rhinestones - they sparkle and please, without offering or pretending to offer any profound value. If you liked "The Importance of Being Earnest" for that character, you'll like these for the same reason.

The book winds down with a few "Poems in Prose," epigrammatic stories of a page or two each. It must be a demanding literary form, compressing so much breadth of concept into so very few words. Wilde, of course, mastered it, as he proves here. It's a fitting finish, a tightly concentrated savory, to the end of this literary feast.

//wiredweird

Wilde is Wonderful
Up to this point I have been unfamiliar with Oscar Wilde's short stories, having only read The Importance of Being Earnest, which I absolutely loved.This book is an intriguing collection of delightful works that is not only entertaining, but thought-provoking too.As always, Wilde cleverly stashes plenty of wit and personality in his writing with a classic style claimed by him alone.I highly recommend this book, it is definitely worth the price. ... Read more

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This volume of Keats's powerful poetry 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. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Slim Evocation to the Muse of Poesy
Oscar Wilde's first book was a collection of his poetry, and perhaps it was as a poet that Wilde thought of himself at the end of life.His last published work during his life time was "The Ballad of Reading Gaol," and in DE PROFUNDIS -- the letter he wrote in prison -- he seems to identify himself more with poets than martyrs (despite his statement that "...the secret of life is suffering...").His early poetry was condemned as the work of a plagiarist, and yet it contains much beauty -- but (strangely?) little if any of his famous wit.He wrote several sonnets, including the following, one of my favourites:
"Helas!"
To drift with every passion till my soul
Is a stringed lute on which all winds can play,
Is it for this that I have given away
Mine ancient wisdom, and austere control?
Methinks my life is a twice-written scroll
Scrawled over on some boyish holiday
With idle songs for pipe and virelay,
Which do but mar the secret of the whole.
Surely there was a time I might have trod
The sunlit heights, and from life's dissonance
Struck one clear chord to reach the ears of God:
Is that time dead? lo! with a little rod
I did but touch the honey of romance --
And must I lose a soul's inheritance?

Micheal MacLiammoir recited this in his one-man show concerning Wilde's Life and Work, THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING OSCAR, and he recited it as smooth poetic prose, and as such it sounded like natural language, despite its strict poetic form.

Perhaps my favourite poem of all time is "The Harlot's House," a work that is strange and evocative.There are many audio/visual renditions of the poem on YouTube, some of which are quite wonderful.I am less impressed with "The Ballad of Reading Gaol," which seems to me too long; yet one cannot doubt the sincerity of its source and message.This is a great wee book.Editor Isobel Murray has included a fascinating introduction and copious notes. ... Read more

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De Profundis is Wilde's eloquent and bitter reproach from prison to his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. He contrasts his behaviour with that of his close friend Robert Ross who became Wilde's literary executor.The Ballad of Reading Gaol is a deeply moving and characteristically generous poem on the horrors of prison life, which was published anonymously in 1898. This collection also includes the essay The Soul of Man under Socialism and two of his Platonic dialogues, The Decay of Lying and The Critic as Artist. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Ballad of Reading Gaol and De Profundis
This edition contains the two best pieces of Wilde's writing.The poem "Ballad" is strong in its sense of poetry and imagery without being sing-songy.De Profundis, while a little difficult to wade throughat certain points, simply captures many of life's truths and sets them downin the written word, to be studied, remembered and savored all at once. ... Read more

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Reissued to coincide with the recent revival of interest in Oscar Wilde, this stimulating reappraisal of Wilde, his work, his life and his times, by the award-winning biographer and theatre critic, Sheridan Morley, seeks to unravel the enigma that has fascinated so many for so long. ... Read more

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The fifth book in this packaged and entertaining series has found its perfect subject. Here are witty one-liners, biting comments, and memorable bon mots by one of the world's great literary figures and oe of the best aphorists of all time. ... Read more

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Oscar Wilde was already famous as a brilliant wit and raconteur when he first began to publish his short stories in the late 1880s.Admired by George Orwell and W. B. Yeats, the stories include poignant fairy-tales such as "The Happy Prince" and "The Selfish Giant," the extravagant comedy of "Lord Arthur Savile's Crime" and "The Canterville Ghost," and the daring narrative experiments of "The Portrait of Mr. W. H.," Wilde's fictional investigation into the identity of the dedicatee of Shakespeare's sonnets. John Sloan's Introduction argues for Wilde's originality and literary achievement as a short-story writer, emphasizing his literary skill and sophistication, and arguing for the centrality of Wilde's shorter fiction in his literary career. The collection includes a useful and up-to-date bibliography and extensive and helpful explanatory notes, and an Appendix reprints an important passage from the book-length version of "The Portrait of Mr. W. H." on the Neo-Platonic ideal of friendship between men, an important key to the short story's meaning. ... Read more

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An Ideal Husband. please visit www.valdebooks.com for a full list of titles ... Read more

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Spectacular full-color paintings complete with richly patterned borders in gold accompany a collection of Wilde's beautiful fairy tales, including ""The Selfish Giant"" and ""The Happy Prince."" ... Read more

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The author reflects on the links between the homosexual of the 1980s and his counterparts of a century ago--between gaylives today and those of Oscar Wilde, his friends, lovers, and acquaintances.Amazon.com Review
Since the 1960s, when his work gained a new recognition in theliterary canon, biographies of Oscar Wilde and critical analysis ofhis work have become commonplace. While this writing acknowledged the"fact" of Wilde's homosexuality, it did not, for the mostpart, explore the complexity of the impact it had upon his life andwork. This is remedied in Neil Bartlett's Who Was That Man?,which squarely places Wilde in a gay historical context and literarytradition.

Neil Bartlett--an openly gay British novelist, critic and leadinginnovator on the British stage--has produced the one of the mostremarkable books ever written on Wilde. Who Was That Man? is apersonal meditation on Wilde's work and the relevance of the artistand playwright in the contemporary world. Bartlett uses his ownexperience as a gay man to understand Wilde's life andmanages--through extensive historical research and evocativelanguage--to make observations and connections and illuminate ourunderstanding of the writer and his place in his own world and ours. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A Walk on the Wilde Side
Who was that Man ? is a meditation and celebration of the form and meaning of gay life in London in the 19th century and the 1970s and 80s. Neil Bartlett puts together a collage of thoughts, excerpts and pictures to find the common threads of behavior and the disparate ways of understanding. He analyzes Wilde's work and life to find its relevance and irrelevance to today; the ways in which Wilde's downfall and persecution cast its shadow; the not very hidden subtext of all of Wilde's work that Wilde desperately denied as he fought for his life. Bartlett has ransacked the British Museum Library and the Collected Works of Oscar Wilde to uncover and restoreforgotten history. Read together with Richard Ellman's biography and Neil Mc Kenna's Secret Life of Oscar Wilde, this book illuminates and goes far to explain Wilde's intentionally fascinating life and works. But more than that it casts light on the whole swath of gay experience.

The Wilde Side
A gay Londoner of the 80s goes searching for his roots and finds Oscar Wilde, a complex figure early on in the history of the cultural and social construction of twentieth-century homosexuality.If you're interested inWilde, this is a very good book to read along with Richard Ellman's morestandard biography. ... Read more

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A star falls from the winter sky into a wood, and there two shepherds find a strange infant. Though exquisitely beautiful of face and form, the Star-Child turns out to be a cruel and selfish boy. One day, he taunts a poor beggar-woman who, to his horror, then claims to be his mother. This classic Oscar Wilde story, brought vividly to life by Jindra Capek's colourful and dramatic pictures. ... Read more

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The Star-Child learns mercy and compassion
A charming, philosophical fairy tale by Oscar Wilde about a baby boy found by a poor woodcutter in a bright and beautiful star. The woodcutter adopts the boy, who grows up extremely beautiful but also arrogant and cruel. He blinds and maims the animals of the forest, and shows no pity to those who where weakly or ill-favoured.

One day he cruelly turns away a beggar-woman, who is his mother, and his beauty is turned into ugliness. He begins a quest to find his mother to beg her forgiveness. Written for older children and the young of heart , in the fine prose of Oscar Wilde.

A lesson in humanity
When a poor woodcutter finds a baby abandoned in the woods, he takes the boy home and raises him as his own. The boy grows up to be beautiful in the extreme, but also arrogant and cruel. When his mother shows up a dirty beggar, he rejects her, and is cursed by having his beauty turned to ugliness. Setting out to find his mother, and gain her forgiveness, the star-child learns a painful lesson in humility and generosity.

This is a touching story written by a master storyteller. Fit for children or adults, it is a touching story with a great lesson in humanity. ... Read more

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this book is the authors novel of a youth whose features, year after year, retain the sam youthful appearance of innocent beauty......... ... Read more

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Pretty good condition
The front cover of the book is torn around the edges but the rest of the book is in good condition ... Read more

Product Description
This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from GeneralBooksClub.com. You can also preview excerpts from the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Volume: 2; Original Published by: J. W. Luce & company in 1905 in 250 pages; Subjects: Drama / General; Drama / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; Drama / Continental European; ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Unexpected
This wasn't wat I expected, but it's just as wonderful. The book is from the 1930s and I feel a reverence to not use it. I probably would have sill bought knowing the year, but I definitely will not bring it places I would have brought a newer book.

An Excellent Kindle Download
This is ideal to have Oscar Wilde's works always available for reading on my Kindle, especially when stuck in the waiting room for 45 minutes at a doctor's office.

EXCELLENT NO FRILLS EDITION OF ESSENTIAL WILDE GUERRILLA THEATRE INCLUDING BOSIE'S TRANSLATION OF SALOME
I prefer to read the original French SALOME as Wilde wrote it for Lady Sarah B., but amazon.com only has that at one hundred dollars (try the usual e-text sites)

This is an excellent useful no frills edition of all the essential plays with the unusual inclusion of Salome. Not a note about its unusual history, nor commentary for any of the other plays. Just what you need when all you want are the plays in one conveniently sized volume. Get it. Essential to any library.

My commentary: Wilde, the loving son of a fierce Irish nationalist, concealed his Catholic faith and true nation allegiance to infiltrate the oppressing Empire and reveal its corruption in these plays, albeit sugar-coated. He was jailed while researching its deepest perversities and broken there before he could write his magnus opus busting this wide open. The closest we have is Dorian Grey and the first scene of Ernest. But his unjust and unholy imprisonment produced De PRofundis and later his Ballad of Reading Goal, which read.

5 great works
Much of Oscar Wilde's public persona can be seen through the plays and reading them it is easy to see why he was so admired, talked about, loathed and scorned. While I don't find him in his plays to be the epitome of wit some make him out to be, it is easy to see how innovative his plays must have been.

Despite being funny in a witty kind of way in many places, they also outline if not his beliefs, then at least his beliefs as he presented them to the public. And what I found was a playful, self mocking kind of "opulence" - where Wilde's supposed aesthesism is not dogmatic but rather to be enjoyed. Thus, we see him participate in society through his characters while mocking society. Another important aspect is that despite his most witty characters (characters one would naturally identify with Wilde) scorning conventional morality, the actual outcome of his plays contains a morality of its own - and one that's quite close to some modern-day libertarians: a happy ending means that people make the best of their circumstances to enjoy themselves and live a happy and fulfilling life in the freedom of pursuing what they want to. Even if this is nothing like what Wilde wanted to convey, it still adds to the plays' reading.

I found the actual plays to be quite undifferentiated in that there is nothing that is in one that is completely radical compared to the others - rather, it's good to read them all in order to immerse oneself in that kind of atmosphere for a brief moment. The only exception is Salome, which is very unusual, but I think it's clear that it was intended to be so, and there's something avant-garde about it (especially the refrains about things like the moon scattered throughout).

But enough from me, read it and find out part of the reason why Wilde has left such a unique mark on world literature/culture/etc!

Spectacular
I, too, am writing to cancel out the vote of the idiot-child who first rated this book.When Amazon deletes his comment and rating, maybe it will delete mine, too. ... Read more

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One of Britain's premier royal biographers pens the first in a series of fiendishly clever and stylish historical murder mysteries

Lovers of historical mystery will relish this chilling Victorian tale based on real events and cloaked in authenticity. Best of all, it casts British literature's most fascinating and controversial figure as the lead sleuth.

A young artist's model has been murdered, and legendary wit Oscar Wilde enlists his friends Arthur Conan Doyle and Robert Sherard to help him investigate. But when they arrive at the scene of the crime they find no sign of the gruesome killing -- save one small spatter of blood, high on the wall. Set in London, Paris, Oxford, and Edinburgh at the height of Queen Victoria's reign, here is a gripping eyewitness account of Wilde's secret involvement in the curious case of Billy Wood, a young man whose brutal murder served as the inspiration for The Picture of Dorian Gray. Told by Wilde's contemporary -- poet Robert Sherard -- this novel provides a fascinating and evocative portrait of the great playwright and his own "consulting detective," Sherlock Holmes creator, Arthur Conan Doyle. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (20)

Preposterous
Mildly engaging mystery. Preposterous that it has anything to do with Oscar Wilde except that it crudely exploits some of his witticisms. For the real fascinating story, read a good biography of him (recommended: any of H. Montgomery Hyde's biographies).

Toooooooooooooooooooooooo LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLong!!!!!!!!!!!
I have always liked the new Holmes mysteries, Nicholas Meyers' 7 percent solution, for example. I was hoping the Wilde mystery would be as good. It isn't that the Wilde story is bad. In fact, in many parts it is quite witty, quite good. It is, however, quite long as it is filled with useless asides. It is my understanding that there are 9, or will be 9, of these mysteries. The other 8 will have to do without me.

Good beginning to the series, but my blue pencil was twitching...
The first thing that pulled me into Oscar Wilde and a Death of No Importance were the characters. Gyles Brandreth's original characters are engaging and realistic, his narrator (the author Robert Sherard, Wilde's best friend) is tragically but believably imperfect, and his Oscar Wilde is more plausible and more complex than the popular dumbed-down modern media caricature. Far from the scatterbrained, lazy dilettante he's usually shown to be (see the British miniseries Lillie for an egregious example), Wilde was a hard-working, highly intelligent writer whose output exceeded most of his contemporaries both in quality and quantity. It's no stretch to imagine such a meticulous observer and dissector of the world's foibles as a Sherlock Holmes made real.

The writing is also excellent. Brandreth seizes the opportunity to write from the point of view of a real-life Victorian author. Historical and celebrity mysteries commonly fall into the trap of turning the narrator into a modern man with modern sensibilities, but Brandreth avoids this by creating a realistic Robert Sherard whose responses to Wilde and to the events of the novel ring very true. He even writes using aspects of Sherard's style, a subtle touch that most writers in his place wouldn't even think of. All those commas and em-dashes are very Sherardian, and wholly unlike Brandreth's non-fiction writing (see John Gielgud: A Celebration for example). I also like that Brandreth isn't using the series as a blatant soapbox; it's honest writing.

So why was my blue pencil twitching? The problem I had was with the mystery itself, which was too loose and disjointed for my tastes with too many digressions on Wilde's part. I suspect that Brandreth wanted to show that Wilde was a busy man, but the story would have worked just as well if it had taken place over a few days or weeks rather than almost a year. There were also aspects of the plot that seemed unlikely to me. The scene featuring John Gray and the candles was psychologically unsound given the circumstances, and Wilde's treatment of his wife didn't ring true (something Brandreth improved in the next book in the series).

I also wasn't surprised by the identity of the murderers. Brandreth has the habit (and this comes from reading both this book and the next) of telegraphing the identity of the killer to the reader by making him or her inexplicably less sympathetic than he or she should be under the circumstances. He even has the characters point this out to each other. This disappointed me. Mystery fiction operates by different rules than real life, and one of the rules is that the killer should not be obviously unsympathetic or amoral until the reveal. Naturally the writer doesn't have to go as far as Agatha Christie did in The Mirror Crack'd, but going too far in the other direction spoils the surprise.

That said, I still highly recommend this book. Brandreth shows respect for his characters and he displays an intelligent understanding of Victorian society and of how someone like Robert Sherard would view that society, both at the time and years later. It's also the introduction to his eventual nine-book series on Wilde, and if the rest of the series is as good as the first two books it's well worth your time.

As an aside: the book ends with a long list of "discussion topics", questions about the book's content written apparently for the benefit of book clubs. Does the publisher (because I assume this is a Dumb Publisher's Gimmick, and not the writer's choice) really think readers are dolts?

Another Great Murder Mystery
I say another because I read the 3rd book in this series first before I read this one.I loved the third one and I love this one as well.Oscar Wilde and his friend Robert Sherard, who happens to be the narrator, are living in London and Wilde is married to Constance with two little boys.One gruesome afternoon Wilde stumbles upon the dead body of a street kid he knew named Billy Wood, whose inspired Wilde to write A Picture of Dorian Gray.The first person, other than Robert, that Wilde tells of the murder is his other good friend Arthur Conan Doyle who is busy writing his Sherlock Holmes series.Doyle sends Wilde to Scotland Yard to a friend of his, Aidan Fraser, to tell him of the murder.Fraser, at first, wants nothing to do with the investigation as there is no body to be found and the place of the murder has been cleaned up.So Wilde and Sherard decide to investigate on their own.

During the course of their investigation they meet Billy Wood's awful uncle who is a brute and a drunk.They also meet his mother, who is besides herself over the loss of her son.They meet Fraser's finance, Veronica Sutherland who bewitches both Robert and Oscar.After much sleuthing about, Wilde deducts what happened to Billy Wood but he must set a trap for the killer.It is really a fascinating read with many Wildean quips included along the way.I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes murder mystery books and/or Oscar Wilde and the Victorian time period.You will have a blast reading this book.

Hidden talents
Playwright and man about town Oscar Wilde has been called many things, but during his life time and since his untimely death.Many of those things have been complimentary and just as many have not but never before has anyone added the term 'detective' to the list.In this, the first of a projected series of novels featuring Oscar and his contemporaries we discover Oscar investigating a death of a London 'call boy', a death that many, including the police, consider to be of no importance.Wilde felt differently and persisted in pursuing the matter despite the personal attacks his efforts brought to himself, his friends and family.

This is an interesting premise for a series of novels.The author has done a great deal of research into Wilde's life and has woven these stories around actual events in Wilde' life.He has also managed to bring Wilde to life for the reader by depicting the playwright as a man, with friends and family.Wilde's complex and contradictory character is shown with much foreshadowing of his tragic end. ... Read more

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To Fully Appreciate Oscar Wilde
Written by a great friend and fellow-writer, this is a heartfelt and touching description of Oscar Wilde's last tragic days.Gide is a master of terse and vivid description.This little book says volumes in a few pages and is an important addition to understanding Wilde and how he changed and became a deeper human being through his suffering.In addition to this, it would be good to read Wilde's Ballad of Reading Gaol and De Profundis to get the full flavor of his transformation. ... Read more

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A once selfish giant welcomes the children to his previously forbidden garden and is eventually rewarded by an unusual little child. ... Read more

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great story in it's original form
For those who are hung up on the Christian themes - it is what it is.That's what the author intended, so if you don't like it, find the watered down version or just don't read it.Simple as that.
Honestly I find that whole line of objection plainly ridiculous.It's like saying, "Macbeth would be a great play if they hadn't had those witches in it".The whole intent was to illustrate the great theme of Redemption and Grace, written by a man (Wilde) who by the end of his life was grieved by the way in which he had wasted so much of his life (the garden) pursuing selfish interests.If you eliminate the spiritual element from the story, you've emasculated it simply to avoid offending a few tender minds in our 'tolerant' modern age.
Anyway, this is a good version of the story.It faithfully reproduces it, which I believe delivers the full impact that it was supposed to.The edited versions seem vacuous.The illustrations are very nice, but a couple don't seem to fit the text very well.The story is broken down into relatively short sections per page, so you're not sitting there for ten minutes between page turns - a nice touch for parents of figgety kids!

A ballet of words and images
Although you may be hit with sticker shock at first if unaware of this story, it is a book well worth it; truly a work of art - a ballet of words and images.I saw a movie of this as a child but had no idea of the name, but the story stuck with me for close to 35 years.I then read a reference to it in Ink Heart and purchased the book immediately.It is now a favorite of my children and it brings them to tears - both sad and joyful - every time we read it.It has a beautiful storyline with wonderful morales to instil, Christian or not (though there is a lovely Christian reference at the end, but not so over the top that if you are not Christian, you couldn't share with your child.The point is the sacrifice and unconditional love)Regardless, it is truly beautiful and from the art perspective alone, worth the cost.And for me, it is well worth the cost to see the compassion for the characters in my children's eyes, and to see them then carry that over to daily life.

Kindness Goes a Long Way
In this story, there is a very selfish giant.He hates kids and won't let them play in his garden.This causes spring not to come.This goes on for years; no children playing, no spring.Finally, one day, many many years later, the children just play in the garden without permission, and spring comes.All of the kids are climbing trees, except for one little boy.Something amazing happens, but you have to read the story to find out what it is.
I think this story is trying to teach us that kindness goes a long way.If you are mean and grumpy all the time, you will have no joys in your life now, or even after death.If you are nice, loving, and caring, that will go along way, and you will be rewarded for that later.Everyone should remember, what you do now, will eventually come back to you, in some way or form.Treat others how you wanted to be treated back. ... Read more

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Product Description
Quotations from the works of Oscar Wilde, including lines from The Importance of Being Earnest, Lady Windemere's Fan, The Picture of Dorian Gray,The Artist as Critic, and many other works. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Wilde is One Seriously Funny Writer
There is no writer funnier than Oscar Wilde, and this collection contains enough gems of his wit to fill a treasure chest.One of my favorites is this one from "The Importance of Being Earnest": 'To lose one parent, Mr Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.' ... Read more