An authoritative edition of Oscar Wilde’s critical writings shows how the renowned dramatist and novelist also transformed the art of commentary. Though he is primarily acclaimed today for his drama and fiction, Oscar Wilde was also one of the greatest critics of his generation. Annotated and introduced by Wilde scholar Nicholas Frankel, this unique collection reveals Wilde as a writer who transformed criticism, giving the genre new purpose, injecting it with style and wit, and reorienting it toward the kinds of social concerns that still occupy our most engaging cultural commentators. “Criticism is itself an art,” Wilde wrote, and The Critical Writings of Oscar Wilde demonstrates this philosophy in action. Readers will encounter some of Wilde’s most quotable writings, such as “The Decay of Lying,” which famously avers that “Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates life.” But Frankel also includes lesser-known works like “The American Invasion,” a witty celebration of modern femininity, and “Aristotle at Afternoon Tea,” in which Wilde deftly (and anonymously) carves up his former tutor’s own criticism. The essays, reviews, dialogues, and epigrams collected here cover an astonishing range of themes: literature, of course, but also fashion, politics, masculinity, cuisine, courtship, marriage—the breadth of Victorian England. If today’s critics address such topics as a matter of course, it is because Wilde showed that they could. It is hard to imagine a twenty-first-century criticism without him.

Oscar Wilde’s infamous wit, taste for scandal, and gift for revealing the hypocrisies of fashionable society are on display here in this collection of his finest plays. A genius both of and ahead of his time, he built his craft on the eternal questions of right and wrong—with pithy dialogue as fresh today as when it was written. In addition to Wilde’s five major plays, this Signet Classics edition contains: • Two interviews with the playwright at the peak of his career, in which Wilde discusses his work—and his critics • Some of his most brilliant critical writing, in which he discusses the nature of art in terms that anticipate much of today’s literary theory • An appendix that restores valuable lines that appeared in the original text of The Importance of Being Earnest With an Introduction by Sylvan Barnet and a New Afterword by Marylu Hill

Reprint. Originally published: New York: Random House, [1969]

Examines the life and writings of James Joyce, including a biographical sketch, detailed synopses of his works, social and historical influences, and more.

Gagnier's introduction and selection of essays on Wilde (1854-1900) mainly concern contemporary American criticism, including three original essays written for this volume. Together they constitute an assessment of what Wilde's work and history mean for the US at this juncture of world history and social theory. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Doctoral Thesis / Dissertation from the year 2002 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: summa cum laude (Grade 1), , language: English, abstract: This book is an updated version of my doctoral dissertation, “The Role of the Reader in Oscar Wilde’s Narrative and Dramatic Works”, for which I was awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English Philology and was granted the distinction "summa cum laude" (University of La Rioja, 2002). In celebration of the 160th anniversary of Oscar Wilde’s birth, I have extended my PhD dissertation in order to include an analysis of the main critical works on Wilde written in the first years of the twenty-first century with a double purpose, namely, to complement the lines of investigation explored on my previous study with the latest contributions on the subject and to set it on an up-to-date framework so as to strengthen the conclusions reached in it in the light of the most recent Wildean research. The present study explores Oscar Wilde's creative writings from the hypothesis that they called upon the active participation of the reader in the construction of their meaning. It has a twofold objective: first, to show that Wilde's emphasis on the creative role of the reader in his critical writings makes him conceive him as a co-creator in the production of meaning; second, to explore the literary strategies which Wilde employs to impel the reader to participate dynamically in the production of the meaning of his works as well as to cast light upon the social criticism which is derived from them. The examination of Oscar Wilde's works is divided up into chapters devoted to specific literary genres in order to show how he gradually developed a remarkable ability to combine more sophisticated techniques that encourage the reader's active role with the progressive incorporation of elements that allow the “commercial” Oscar to make his works successful among the public without betraying the “literary” Wilde’s artistic principles. The analysis of the role of the reader in Oscar Wilde's works permits to revaluate Wilde as a critic and as a writer. Furthermore, it demonstrates that, apart from the fact that Wilde the “myth” went ahead of his age in a wide range of aspects, there exists Wilde the “ARTIST”, who anticipated various themes in his aesthetic theory which concern contemporary literary theoreticians. This opens the possibility to a vast number of research writings about Oscar Wilde that may contribute to understand the origins of current literary interests and give him the status he rightly deserves in the history of literature.

"The Longman Compact Anthology of British Literature" is a concise and thoughtfully arranged survey of British literature. Within its pages, canonical authors mingle with newly visible writers; English accents are heard next to Anglo-Norman, Welsh, Gaelic, and Scottish ones; female and male voices are set in dialogue; literature from the British Isles is integrated with post-colonial writing; and major works are illuminated by clusters of shorter texts that bring literary, social, and historical issues vividly to life. Readers interested in British Literature.

The third volume in the literature series includes contributions from: Mary Burke, James Byrne, Anthony Caleshu, Heather Clark, Elke D'Hoker, Michael Flanagan, Oona Frawley, Jason Hall, Michael Jaros, Ronan Kelly, Padraig Kirwan, Heather Laird, Dymphna Lonergan, Virginia Mack, Márta Minier, Ruben Moi, Sean Moore, Katie Moylan, Catriona Ó Torna, Cristina Pascual Aransáez, Michelle Paul, Maria Power, Loredana Salis, Claire Schomp, Gerold Sedlmayr, Kersti Tarien and Desmond Traynor.

Includes the following works: Novels- The Portrait of Dorian Gray; Plays-Salome and The Importance of Being Earnest; Writings-De Profundis, Critic as Artist, and Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Very Young; and selections from Lady Windermere's Fan, An Ideal Husband, and A Woman of No Importance. The Picture of Dorian Gray, Salome and The Importance of Being Earnest are accompanied by Wilde's prison memoirs, poems, and selected correspondence.