I Can Resist Everything Except Temptation: The Wicked Wit of Oscar Wilde by Oscar Wilde

I Can Resist Everything Except Temptation: The Wicked Wit of Oscar Wilde by Oscar Wilde

A book of the greatest quips many of us will ever read, Wicked Wit of Oscar Wilde is a compilation of the authors best, and most clever sayings, letters and speeches. Every page is a new look into the mind of Oscar Wilde and his incredibly lavish lifestyle and quirky thoughts.

The first year of the twenty-first century marked the centenary of the death of one of the most extraordinary figures in English letters--the Irish writer, socialite and, supremely, wit, Oscar Wilde. A fervently written Publisher's forward opens the book with the background of Oscar Wilde's demise, plus a look into the daily life of Oscar Wilde.

Pick up a copy of Wicked Wit of Oscar Wilde for the literary genius or rebel with an attitude in your life, who will surely cherish the charm and anti-establishment yet graceful attitude of Oscar Wilde. A beautifully bound hardback edition of this book offers a wonderful gift for anyone looking to round out their Wilde collection or add a conversation-starter to their coffee table or bookshelf. The Wicked Wit of Oscar Wilde will make a great gift for anyone interested in English Literature, learning new jokes or how to live a most fabulous life.

Wilde, Oscar: - Oscar Wilde (16 October 1854 - 30 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and the circumstances of his criminal conviction for gross indecency, imprisonment, and early death at age 46. Wilde's parents were successful Anglo-Irish intellectuals in Dublin. Their son became fluent in French and German early in life. At university, Wilde read Greats; he proved himself to be an outstanding classicist, first at Trinity College Dublin, then at Oxford. He became known for his involvement in the rising philosophy of aestheticism, led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles. As a spokesman for aestheticism, he tried his hand at various literary activities: he published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on the new English Renaissance in Art and interior decoration, and then returned to London where he worked prolifically as a journalist. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversational skill, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day. At the turn of the 1890s, he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into what would be his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray(1890). The opportunity to construct aesthetic details precisely, and combine them with larger social themes, drew Wilde to write drama. He wrote Salome (1891) in French while in Paris but it was refused a licence for England due to an absolute prohibition on the portrayal of Biblical subjects on the English stage. Unperturbed, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late-Victorian London. At the height of his fame and success, while The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) was still being performed in London, Wilde had the Marquess of Queensberry prosecuted for criminal libel. The Marquess was the father of Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. The libel trial unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and trial for gross indecency with men. After two more trials he was convicted and sentenced to two years' hard labour, the maximum penalty, and was jailed from 1895 to 1897. During his last year in prison, he wrote De Profundis (published posthumously in 1905), a long letter which discusses his spiritual journey through his trials, forming a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure. On his release, he left immediately for France, never to return to Ireland or Britain. There he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life. He died destitute in Paris at the age of 46.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780785833260
ISBN 10	0785833269
Title	I Can Resist Everything Except Temptation: The Wicked Wit of Oscar Wilde
Author	Oscar Wilde
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Chartwell Books
Number of pages	192
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.