This edition collects and prints all of Oscar Wilde's short fiction, principally the three collections of tales published in the late 1880s and early 1890s. The first of these was The Happy Prince (1888), a volume which was aimed at the children's market, and which capitalized on the growing popularity of fairy stories in nineteenth-century Britain. This edition then prints Lord Arthur Savile's Crime (1891), Wilde's volume of short tales satirizing the manners and morals of London's elite in the last decades of the nineteenth century--those 'upper ten thousand', as Max Beerbohm later called them. In many ways these stories anticipate both the themes and the devices of Wilde's later and highly successful society comedies, including Lady Windermere's Fan and The Importance of Being Earnest. This edition also includes Wilde's second volume of fairy stories, A House of Pomegranates (1891); this volume comprised tales written for adults, and contained Decadent and what can be seen as highly sexualized themes. The textual and printing history of each of these volumes is described and explored in detail. The substantial commentary provides a full critical annotation of each story. Wilde also wrote stories which were not collected, most importantly a jeu d'esprit on the identity of the addressee of Shakespeare's Sonnets--'The Portrait of Mr W.H.', a piece which appeared in periodical form in the late 1880s. Wilde expanded his story, turning it into a hybrid of fiction and criticism, and in the process used it as a vehicle to describe his view of the relationship--physical, artistic, and spiritual--between Shakespeare and a (fictitious) boy-actor in his company, the 'Mr W.H.' of the title and of the dedication of the first printing of Shakespeare's Sonnets. This revised and expanded piece, which remained unpublished in Wilde's lifetime, represents his most sustained and eloquent exploration of male-male desire. The edition prints in full for the first time Wilde's manuscript of that story. Like the other works it prints, the edition also contains full critical annotation which documents Wilde's reading on Renaissance philosophy and theatre history. The lengthy introduction describes in detail Wilde's metamorphosis from a jobbing journalist, whose work often appeared anonymously in the penny press of the 1880s, to an accomplished writer of fiction.
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This edition collects all of Oscar Wilde's short fiction, principally The Happy Prince (1888), Lord Arthur Savile's Crime (1891), and Wilde's second volume of fairy stories, A House of Pomegranates (1891). It also includes the first full edition of Wilde's expanded version of 'The Portrait of Mr W.H.', unpublished in Wilde's lifetime.
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Introduction Wilde's Principal Writing (excluding his fiction) from January 1885-July 1889 Textual Introduction Abbreviations and Symbols 'A Fire At Sea' The Happy Prince and Other Tales Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories A House of Pomegranates The incomparable and ingenious history of Mr W. H. 'The Portrait of Mr W. H.' Commentary Appendix: 'L'Anniversaire de la a Naissance de la Petite Princesse' Index
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the accompanying editorial apparatus and notes are superb, supporting the key arguments set out in the introduction and drawing attention to significant features of Wilde's methods of composition and revision ... [a] magnificent volume
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The first full variorum edition of Oscar Wilde's three volumes of short fiction Presents the first full variorum edition of the long version of 'The Portrait of Mr W. H.', a work which remained unpublished in his own lifetime The first systematic account of Wilde's development as a writer of short stories, and of the relationship between his careers as a journalist and a writer of short fiction Each story is fully annotated The only edition of Wilde's short fiction which describes in full its intertextual elements and sources
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Ian Small has spent most of his academic career in the English Department at the University of Birmingham, although he has held a number of visiting posts at universities throughout the world, particularly in the USA. He has written widely on late nineteenth-century English and Irish literary culture and on issues in literary and text-theory. Has been the general editor of the multi-volume Oxford English Texts edition of the Complete Works of Oscar Wilde since its inception almost twenty years ago.
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The first full variorum edition of Oscar Wilde's three volumes of short fiction Presents the first full variorum edition of the long version of 'The Portrait of Mr W. H.', a work which remained unpublished in his own lifetime The first systematic account of Wilde's development as a writer of short stories, and of the relationship between his careers as a journalist and a writer of short fiction Each story is fully annotated The only edition of Wilde's short fiction which describes in full its intertextual elements and sources
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Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9780198119593
Publisert
2017
Utgiver
Vendor
Oxford University Press
Vekt
858 gr
Høyde
224 mm
Bredde
144 mm
Dybde
39 mm
Aldersnivå
U, 05
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Antall sider
630

Redaktør

Biographical note

Ian Small has spent most of his academic career in the English Department at the University of Birmingham, although he has held a number of visiting posts at universities throughout the world, particularly in the USA. He has written widely on late nineteenth-century English and Irish literary culture and on issues in literary and text-theory. Has been the general editor of the multi-volume Oxford English Texts edition of the Complete Works of Oscar Wilde since its inception almost twenty years ago.