Revising Wilde: Society and Subversion in the Plays of Oscar Wilde (Oxford English Monographs) [Hardcover]

Sos Eltis (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0198121830 | ISBN-13: 978-0198121831 | Publication Date: July 18, 1996

A radical re-examination of Oscar Wilde's plays, Revising Wilde challenges long-established views of the writer as a dilettante and dandy. Instead Wilde emerges as a serious philosopher and social critic who used his plays to subvert the traditional values of Victorian literature and society. Sos Eltis traces Wilde's painstaking revisions and redrafting of his plays, and uncovers Wilde's subtle methods of lampooning his conventional sources. In the process Eltis discovers, concealed in successive versions, Wilde the anarchist, the socialist, and the feminist. Taking into account the most recent scholarship and criticism, this accessible study will be of interest to Wilde specialists and enthusiasts alike.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[A]dopts a...contextually compelling perspective..."Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900

"The argument of this book...is a compelling one, and likely to be influential--partly because of the fluent articulation Eltis gives it, partly because of the sheer weight of archival evidence that she has assembled from little-known source plays and manuscripts."--Victorian Studies

About the Author

Sos Eltis is at St Hilda's College, Oxford.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (July 18, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0198121830
• ISBN-13: 978-0198121831
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,170,486 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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