Showing results by author "Oscar Wilde" in Literary History & Criticism

This selection of essays by Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) demonstrate the varied power of his genius. Compiled from his lecture tours, newspaper articles, essays and epigrams, these writings show that beneath his trademark wit and love of paradox, Oscar Wilde was an original and remarkably modern writer.

The Importance of Being Earnest is undoubtably Oscar Wilde's best known play probably due to its sharp wit that cannot help but enchant and entertain any reader, theatregoer or listener with this performance.

LibriVox recording of The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde.Source: https://archive.org/details/dorian_gray_librivox Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Wit and Wisdom of Oscar Wilde is a timeless collection of the sharpest observations, paradoxes, and epigrams from one of literature’s most brilliant minds. Oscar Wilde’s wit is elegant, mischievous, and relentlessly insightful. With effortless precision, he skewers social conventions, exposes hypocrisy, and reveals enduring truths about love, ambition, beauty, morality, and human folly. Each quotation stands alone yet contributes to a larger portrait of Wilde’s worldview—one that prizes individuality, intellectual courage, and the art of living well.

A wonderfully charming recording available for the first time as a digital download. Jack Worthing lives in the country with his budding young ward Cecily Cardew and her fusspot governess, Miss Prism. To escape his situation, Jack invents a brother named Ernest who lives in London and frequently...

This is a selection of the early poetry of Oscar Wilde, selected by Robert Ross. As he puts it, "It is thought that a selection from Oscar Wilde’s early verses may be of interest to a large public at present familiar only with the always popular Ballad of Reading Gaol, also included in this volume. The poems were first collected by their author when he was twenty-six years old, and though never, until recently, well received by the critics, have survived the test of NINE editions. Readers will be able to make for themselves the obvious and striking contrasts between these first and last ...

They are icons of the literary world whose soaring works have been discussed and analyzed in countless classrooms, homes, and pubs. Yet for most listeners, the living, breathing human beings behind the classics have remained unknown - until now. In this utterly captivating audiobook, Dr. Elliot Engel, a leading authority on the lives of great authors, illuminates the fascinating and flawed members of literature's elite. In lieu of stuffy biographical sketches, Engel provides fascinating anecdotes.

Oscar Wilde's poem Ravenna won the prestigious Newdigate Prize for Poetry at Oxford University. It was recited by the author in the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford on June 26th 1878. The poem describes Wilde's reaction to his first visit to Ravenna in Italy. Many of the other poems in this recording also reflect Wilde's great love of Italian life and culture. Some also show his admiration for the English Romantic Poets, Keats, Shelley and Byron. (Summary by Alan Mapstone)

LibriVox volunteers bring you 22 recordings of From Spring Days to Winter by Oscar Wilde. This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for January 5, 2025. ------ Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. - Summary by Wikipedia

Devilishly attractive Lord Illingworth is notorious for his skill as a seducer. But he is still invited to all the "best" houses, while his female conquests must hide their shame in seclusion. In this devastating drawing-room comedy, Oscar Wilde uses his celebrated wit to expose English society's narrow view of everything from sexual mores to Americans.

Oscar Wilde said of his story The Happy Prince that it was "an attempt to treat a tragic modern problem in a form that aims at delicacy and imaginative treatment; it is a reaction against the purely imitative character of modern art.” His Fairy Tales then were only partly written for children and as he said, "partly for those who have kept the childlike faculties of wonder and joy, and who find in simplicity a subtle strangeness".In The Happy Prince and The Nightingale and the Rose, Wilde explores love and self sacrifice. The Selfish Giant will not let the children in his garden but repents ...

Wilde's collection of fairy tales has delighted both children and adults since it was first published in 1888. It contains five stories, "The Happy Prince", "The Nightingale and the Rose", "The Selfish Giant", "The Devoted Friend", and "The Remarkable Rocket". The volunteers who lent their voices to this dramatic reading are Availle, Rebecca Braunert-Plunkett, ElleyKat, Amanda Friday, Libby Gohn, Elizabeth Klett, Arielle Lipshaw, Beth Thomas, and Katalina Watt. (Summary by Charlotte Duckett)

In The Picture of Dorian Gray, we follow the captivating journey of Dorian, whose desire for eternal youth leads him down a dark path of moral decay and self-destruction. Join Isabella Garcia as she narrates this timeless tale of ambition, beauty, and the consequences of living a life without remorse.

Discover the enchanting world of The Happy Prince and Other Tales, an 1888 collection by Oscar Wilde that captivates the hearts of both children and adults. At the heart of this collection is the beloved story of The Happy Prince, a poignant tale of a gilded statue who forms an unlikely friendship with a migratory bird. Together, they embark on a journey of compassion, bringing joy to those in need, even in their own sacrifice. Wildes stories celebrate beauty, adventure, and the richness of the human experience, leaving readers with a lasting appreciation for the extraordinary.

Wilde’s meditation on capital punishment, the Ballad of Reading Gaol comes after he was convicted and imprisoned under charges of gross indecency. The charges stemmed from his affair with Lord Alfred Douglas, the son of the Marquis of Queensberry. It relates the story of an execution of a man who murdered his wife which Wilde witnessed during his internment. Published in 1898, it was Wilde’s last published poem as he would die in 1900 from cerebral meningitis, caused by syphilis.(Summary by John Gonzalez)

In 1895, Oscar Wilde was sentenced to 2 years of hard labor for acts of ‘gross indecency’. During his time at Reading Gaol, he witnessed a rare hanging, and in the three years between his release and his untimely death in 1900, was inspired to write the following poem, a meditation on the death penalty and the importance of forgiveness, even for (and especially for) something as heinous as murdering one’s spouse; for even the murderer, Wilde argues, is human and suffers more so for being the cause of his own pain, for ‘having killed the thing he loved’; for everyone is the cause of ...

Lady Windermere's Fan, A Play About a Good Woman is a four-act comedy by Oscar Wilde, first produced 22 February 1892 at the St James's Theatre in London. The play was first published in 1893. Like many of Wilde's comedies, it bitingly satirizes the morals of Victorian society, particularly marriage. The story concerns Lady Windermere, who discovers that her husband may be having an affair with another woman. She confronts her husband but he instead invites the other woman, Mrs Erlynne, to his wife's birthday ball. Angered by her husband's unfaithfulness, Lady Windermere leaves her husband for...

This is a volume of poetry by Oscar Wilde, containing some of his rather famous longer poetry in the first part, and a section of sonnets in the second part of the book. - Summary by Carolin

De Profundis is a poignant piece penned by Oscar Wilde during his two-year imprisonment for gross indecency. This powerful and introspective work is a deeply moving letter that navigates through his life and expresses his profound love for Lord Alfred Douglas. Intended as Wildes farewell to Douglas, the content of this podcast is transcribed from the 1913 Methuen & Co. edition. Its important to note that subsequent editions of De Profundis include additional material, with the most comprehensive versions still under copyright in the U.S.

LibriVox volunteers bring you 19 recordings of The Harlot's House by Oscar Wilde. This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for June 9, 2024. ------ Oscar Fingal O'Flaherty Wills Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. - Summary by Wikipedia