Poems [Paperback]

Oscar Wilde (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 30, 2004 | ISBN-10: 1594567174 | ISBN-13: 978-1594567179

Poems by Oscar Wilde (1881) is a collection of his famous poetry which represents the full range of his achievement as a poet and includes the memorable poem to his sister with other masterpieces like On The Sale By Auction Of Keats' Love Letters, Sonnet On Hearing The Dies Irae Sung In The Sistine Chapel, Ravenna and The Ballad of Reading Gaol. With a Wilde's keen perception of human feelings and emotions make this a mature anthology of poetry.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

WILDE, OSCAR O'FLAHERTIE WILLS (1856-1900), English author was born in Dublin on the 15th of October 1856; his mother, Jane Francisca Elgee, was well known in Dublin as a graceful writer of verse and prose, under the pen-name of ""Speranza."" Having distinguished himself in classics at Trinity College, Dublin, Oscar Wilde went to Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1874, and won the Newdigate prize in 1878 with his poem ""Ravenna,"" besides taking a first-class in classical Moderations and in Literae Humaniores. But his career at Oxford, brilliant intellectually as he showed himself to be, was chiefly signalized by the part he played in what came to be known as the aesthetic movement. Wilde made himself the apostle of this new cult. As the leading ""aesthete,"" Oscar Wilde became one of the most prominent personalities of the day; his affected paradoxes and his witty sayings were quoted on all sides, and in 1882 he went on a lecturing tour in the United States. He had already published in 1881 a selection of his poems, which, however, only attracted admiration in a limited circle. In 1888 appeared The Happy Prince and Other Tales. This charming volume of fairy tales was followed up later by a second collection, The House of Pomegranates (1892). In much of his writings, and in his general attitude, there was to most people an undertone of rather nasty suggestion which created prejudice against him, and his novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), with all its sparkle and cleverness, impressed them more from this point of view than from its purely literary brilliance. Wilde contributed some characteristic articles to the reviews, all coloured by his peculiar attitude towards art and life, and in 1891 republished three of them as a book called Intentions. His first real success with the larger public was as a dramatist with Lady Windermere's Fan at the St James's Theatre in 1892, followed by A Woman of No Importance (1893), An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). The dramatic and literary ability shown in these plays, all of which were published later in book form, was as undoubted as their diction and ideas were characteristically paradoxical. In 1893 the licenser of plays refused a licence to Wilde's Salome, but it was produced in French in Paris in 1894. In 1898 he published his powerful Ballad of Reading Gaol. His Collected Poems, containing some beautiful verse, had been issued in 1892. The manuscripts of A Florentine Tragedy and an essay on Shakespeare's sonnets were stolen from his house in 1895. He died in Paris on the 30th of November 1900. In 1904 a five-act tragedy, The Duchess of Padua, written by Wilde about 1883 was published in a German translation in Berlin. His literary genius was remarkable, and his plays were perhaps the most original contributions to English dramatic writing during the period. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 32 pages
• Publisher: BookSurge Classics (April 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594567174
• ISBN-13: 978-1594567179
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)