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Writer's Cave - The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Volume 1, Poems and Poems in Prose
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List Price: $265.00
Our Price: $208.00
Your Save: $57.00 ( 22% )
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Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 828.809
EAN: 9780198119609
ISBN: 0198119607
Label: Oxford University Press, USA
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 368
Publication Date: 2000-07
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Studio: Oxford University Press, USA
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Collectable
Comment: Not practical book to carry and to read it while outside, but it is just the way how ALL-IN-ONE book is...However, good to have all his works together...
Customer Rating:
Summary: Magnificent!
Comment: I wish there was some way to make this large tome more compact, because (if it were possible) I would probably carry it around with me wherever I went! I originally became familiar with his work because Carl Barat and Pete Doherty (band members of The Libertines, a fantastic British band) had mentioned him amongst their favourite authors. I decided to read "The Picture of Dorian Gray". I liked so much that I decided to buy the whole collection of Wilde's plays, poems, and stories.
Perhaps I am biased because I particularly enjoy literature from the 1800s (Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Lewis Carroll, Edwin A. Abbott), though I must admit that I haven't come across anything similar to Oscar Wilde's work before. Wilde's profound ability of creating rich, imaginative dialogue is especially evident in his plays and his one novel, "The Picture of Dorian Gray". Many of his plays, especially The Importance of Being Earnest, are too fantastic, too purely Victorian in nature to be imaginable as happening in real life. However, I think that it is the underlying fanciful, almost surrealistic quality of much of his stories and poems that make them most interesting. The sheer amount of quotable phrases found in his work is something to really be marvelled at. Not only the dialogue, but the quality of the plot is brilliant as well. "The Picture of Dorian Gray", a tale of a handsome youth's descent into madness and debauchery, is particularly striking. It makes me wonder what other stories Wilde could have produced if his life had not been so tragically short (1854-1900).
Though he might be more well-known for his plays and novel, his first published material was poetry. His poetry, as does his other work, embodies his ideals of aesthetics: "art for art's sake". The articulate, minute description of details which might go unnoticed or seen as obsolete matter a great deal in the aesthetic philosophy, as does the beautification of objects and art in everyday life. Wilde even had a tour of lectures on the aesthetic movement in the United States and Canada in 1882, though his philosophy wasn't well-received by the majority of critics.
Wilde had said that "The House of Pomegranates", one of his collections of fairy-tales, was "intended neither for the British child nor the British public". This is believable to an extent, because the majority of Wilde's material seems to be encompassed in a world of his own. He was incredibly proficient at putting down onto paper the very heart and soul of what he was trying to convey, which eventually contributed to getting him into trouble later on. The "The Picture of Dorian Gray" became notorious amongst critics as being a "corrupt" and "unclean" work, chiefly due to the apparently "sinful" nature of Dorian Gray and his misadventures.
This collection is 1000+ pages in length, though it didn't take me a considerably long time to read because I found the bulk of it incredibly interesting and well-written. Even for those who have read some of his work before (any poems, stories, essays, and/or letters), and especially for those who haven't...get this book! You will not regret for a moment the decision to delve further into the literature of one of the greatest authors that I know of.
Customer Rating:
Summary: "I Hate It When Everyone Agrees With Me, For Then I Must Consider That I Might Be Wrong"
Comment: The title says it all. This is THEE complete works of Ireland's gift to Victorian London. Wilde's plays, essays, poems, his sole novel, The Picture of Dorian Grey, and his last bitter work, De Profundus, (From The Depths) a letter to his lover and betrayer, Lord Alfred Douglas, is re-printed as well. For the price, it's the best way to add this celebrated, tragic wit to your library.
Customer Rating:
Summary: the cover (thin film)
Comment: was peeled off and stuck on to the shipping bag.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Don't leave home without it
Comment: If you believe literature's main purpose in existence is to induce pleasure, you could probably never find a better writer than Oscar Wilde.
All his plays are absolute delights from start to finish, even the ones that aren't The Importance of Being Earnest. The Picture of Dorian Gray is a fantastic novel and a deserved classic. His poetry's derivative, but not bad by any stretch of the imagination. His stories, essays, letters, collections of epigrams, and other various writings are excellent reading as well, if you don't mind occasional melodrama or other minor missteps.
This is a relatively expensive collection, but one that is well worth it. I don't regret spending a penny. The print's a readable size and, to my somewhat expansive knowledge on Wilde, none of his writings have been omitted or forgotten.
Essential for those who want to enjoy literature while allowing it to expand the mind, but also looking for something deeper than Tuesdays With Morrie or other modern, popular tripe.
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