12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Selected Letters..., November 26, 2007
This review is from: Oscar Wilde: A Life in Letters (Hardcover)
.
Wilde's grandson Merlin Holland--(himself a Wilde scholar)--has produced this nice edition of selected letters to effect a kind of autobiographical narrative. It works well and will probably suffice for most readers.
Students and scholars, however, will of course require the complete letters--(now inexplicably out of print): this is especially true for the "leftover years" (as Richard Ellmann has termed them): that is, the final 3.5 years of Wilde's life on the Continent after his release from prison in England, May 1897.
The Complete Letters of Oscar Wilde
.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A carefully selected resume with commentary of the enormous 1250 page complete collection edited ably by the same Merln Holland, January 7, 2008
This review is from: Oscar Wilde: A Life in Letters (Hardcover)
The only thing missing from this careful selection of letters from throughout the life of the prolific and pioneering and brilliant Irishman Oscar Wilde is that letter written under the most impossible of circumstances and often published elsewhere and easily accessible with the imposed and unoriginal title of De profundis, perhaps the most essential letter in all the Wilde opus.
But first, a divergence to a rather dark wood, as contrast to this bright light.
James Joyce's grandson, who emptily boasts of being "a Joyce, not a Joycean," has burned, concealed and otherwise destroyed and made unavailable to scholarly review correspondence and other documents relating to the study of that greatest writer of the Twentieth Century. He has demonstrated himself uninterested and incapable of the study of his own grandfather, but has restricted access and permissions for the academic study of his grandfather's work. He shows interest only in increasing material profit from for example
Ulysses (Gabler Edition), the greatest novel of the 20th century, required reading in any upper level college course and thus a guaranteed source of income in any case, no need to restrict access. Thus he completes that publication persecution which persisted throughout his grandfather's too brief yet generous lifetime, and beyond, in which his books could find no publisher in an English speaking land, including in America, the alleged Land of the Free. Apparently this living Joyce inherited his grandmother's intellect and his great-grandfather's economy rather than his grandfather's great heart and mind.
Another cosmopolitan Irishman like James Joyce, and the nineteenth century's greatest writer mainly in English, Mr. Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde would fare much better in his progeny. Vyvyan, his son who survived the British imperialist war (unlike his heroic brother) became in later life a brilliant writer on Wilde, including most touchingly in
Son of Oscar Wilde. Now Oscar Wilde's grandson, Merlin, has proven himself to be one of the world's leading authorities on the subject of his grandfather, after years of keen academic study and irrepressible heartfelt affection. Merlin would humbly be the first to deny this; yet his body of work and commentary speak for themselves.
Within the publishing industry arose a profitable cottage industry of brief collections of pithy yet empty Wilde quotes and epigrams drawn stricly out of context, seeking to deny Wilde's brilliant social commentary and tame him to a proto-Noel Coward. Merlin saves his monumental grandfather from such a civilizing fate, as well as from the popular rumors, libels and scandals which still hound him. From Merlin we may find
The Real Trial of Oscar Wilde, also published in England as
Irish Peacock and Scarlet Marquess. We find Merlin contributing learned yet highly readable commentary and forewords to a number of collections of Wilde's works, including
Complete Works of Oscar Wilde (Collins Classics) and
Stories for Young People: Oscar Wilde (Stories for Young People). He does stoop to contributing one popularized collection in
Coffee with Oscar Wilde (Coffee with...Series) as well as phoning in an interview at the end of the recent recording of
A Woman of No Importance, an interview in which he is continually interrupted by the aggressive interviewess and in which we find his great humility and untapped wisdom. And of course he is editor of the enormous and highly desirable
The Complete Letters of Oscar Wilde to which this present edition refers.
This collection, A Life in Letters, truly fulfills its title, drawing us through the full life of Mr. Wilde at every point from his first going to school to his final years before his early and tragic death in 1900. Merlin Holland contributes astute biographical commentary throughout and excellent auxiliary material, including an index of recipients, etc.
This book is highly recommended for any serious student of literature mainly in English, for understanding more clearly Mr. Wilde. This book therefore finds worthy place in any college or advanced high school library, and is a very good and substantial substitute for all of those droll collections of Wildean sayings drawn from the heart of his work. If you thus prefer to sip and to savor rather than avidly to consume your Wilde, here is a good place to start, guided by a brilliant, knowledgable and caring host in his learned grandson Merlin, who so eagerly and rightly shares with us all of the remarkable aspects of his genius and Irish grandfather.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
