000			a
999			_c32653 _d32653
008			240313b xxu||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
020			_a9780674271821
082			_a824.8 _bWIL
100			_aWilde, Oscar
245			_aThe critical writings of Oscar Wilde : an annotated selection
260			_bHarvard University Press, _c2022 _aCambridge :
300			_avi,386 p. ; _bill., _c22 cm
365			_b29.95 _c$ _d86.30
504			_aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
520			_aThough 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.
650			_aIllusion
650			_aSocialism
650			_aAmerican Invasion
650			_aEngland Social life
700			_aFrankel, Nicholas _eed.
942			_2ddc _cBK