➡️ Part 1➡️ Part 2 When Oscar Wilde enlarged the story for the novel-length version, he responded to his critics by further toning down its “immoral” elements, obscuring the homoeroticism of the plot and expanding the personal background of the characters. The amended version, extended from 13 to 20 chapters, was published in a single… Read More The Picture of Dorian Gray: Preface/3
➡️ Part 1 When J.M. Stoddart finally received Oscar Wilde’s novella “The Portrait of Dorian Gray” and began reading it, he was immediately impressed by the literary merits of the work . But there were some aspects that left him much less enthusiastic, indeed, decidedly perplexed. He told the publisher, George Lippincott, that the story… Read More The Picture of Dorian Gray: a novella/2
On 20 June 1890 the reading public began to hear about “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, Oscar Wilde’s famous tale of a young man who purchases eternal youth at the expense of his soul.It was on that day that a shorter novella-length version of the novel was published on both sides of the Atlantic in… Read More The Picture of Dorian Gray: a novella/1
Lionel Johnson (see here) was the cousin and tutor of 20-year-old Lord Alfred Douglas, ‘Bosie’ for short. He lent him his copy of “The Portrait of Dorian Gray” and the young man claimed he had been so ‘passionately absorbed’ in the book, that he had devoured it, reading it ‘ fourteen times running’.The two of… Read More Johnson and Wilde (2) … and Bosie
Lionel Pigot Johnson, English poet, essayist, and critic, was born on 15 March 1867 in Kent.He studied at Winchester College and then at New College, Oxford, graduating in 1890 ; after that he went to London to pursue a literary career and to work as a writer and critic for a number of periodicals. When… Read More Johnson and Wilde (1)
“If winter comes,Can spring be far behind?” (1)He wondered this morning at the beginning of winter. Don’t worry, I said“If we winter this one out,We can summer anywhere.” (2) Can’t you see that “Winter is on my head,But eternal spring is in my heart.” (3)? “And when wind and winter hardenAll the loveless land….You will… Read More Winter Has Come (Pot-Pourri)
In his poem “Trees”, made up of twelve lines of rhyming couplets (see here). Joyce Kilmer talks about the inability of art to replicate the beauty achieved by nature.Its seemingly simple rhyme scheme and meter, along with the choice of unpretentious metaphors, are easy to mimic and many writers have parodied it, above all after… Read More Kilmer’s “Trees” and Nash’s Parody
Oscar Wilde died in Paris on this day, 30 November 1900, when he was only 46.Here is a short touching poem he wrote on the death of a young girl, his sister. Requiescat Tread lightly, she is near Under the snow,Speak gently, she can hear The daisies grow. All her bright golden hair Tarnished with… Read More Oscar Wilde and Death
💛 Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known. 💛 Art is the only serious thing in the world. And the artist is the only person who is never serious. 💛 No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an… Read More Oscar Wilde on Art
💛 To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all. 💛 The only thing that one really knows about human nature is that it changes. 💛 Experience, the name men give to their mistakes. ✏️Vivere è la cosa più rara al mondo. La maggior parte della gente esiste e nulla… Read More Oscar Wilde on Life
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