Sign-In
Cart
Intentions
Paperback
Series: Prometheus's Literary Classics Series
Letters & EssaysFiction Anthologies
Please select the version of book you would like to purchase.
ISBN10: 1591021952
ISBN13: 9781591021957
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Published: Jun 1 2004
Pages: 263
Weight: 0.73
Height: 0.61 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.38
Language: English
ISBN13: 9781591021957
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Published: Jun 1 2004
Pages: 263
Weight: 0.73
Height: 0.61 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.38
Language: English
Originally 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.
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.
42 different editions
Also available
Also in
Letters & Essays
Suitable Accommodations: An Autobiographical Story of Family Life: The Letters of J. F. Powers, 1942-1963
Powers, J. F.
Paperback
From $9.99
Essays V2: Moral And Entertaining On The Various Faculties And Passions Of The Human Mind (1815)
Clarendon, Edward Hyde Earl of
Paperback
$37.44
But Have You Read the Book? Romance Edition: 40 Love Stories That Inspired Our Favorite Films
Lopez, Kristen
Hardcover
$19.00
World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments
Nezhukumatathil, Aimee
Paperback
$18.00
Sez I to Myself: The Collected Essays of Frank and Malachy McCourt
McCourt, Frank
McCourt, Malachy
Hardcover
$28.50
Little Apocalypses: Essays on Motherhood, Climate Change, and Hope at the End of the World
Teer, Kaitlyn
Paperback
$18.04
Corazón Migrante. Ensayos Sobre Lo Que No Puedo Olvidar / Migrant Heart: Essays on What I Cannot Forget
Grande, Reyna
Paperback
$18.95
Glimmerings: Letters on Faith Between a Poet and a Theologian
Volf, Miroslav
Wiman, Christian
Hardcover
From $19.99
Love in the Afternoon, and Evening: Essays and Conversations on Soap Operas
Druckman, Charlotte
Sen, Mayukh
Paperback
$19.79
Wonderbook (Revised and Expanded): The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction
VanderMeer, Jeff
Paperback
$28.49
Mon Cher Amour: The Love Letters of Albert Camus and Maria Casares, 1944-1959
Camus, Albert
Hardcover
$54.00
Languages of Home: Essays on Writing, Hoop, and American Lives 1975-2025
Wideman, John Edgar
Hardcover
$27.55
Gilmore Girls: The Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge: The Official Guide to All the Books
Berlin, Erika
Hardcover
$20.90