Oscar Wilde

Gebundenes Buch

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Beschreibung

"The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame." - Oscar Wilde "an idea that is as old as the history of literature but to which I have given a new form" - Oscar Wilde Dorian Gray is the subject of a full-length portrait in oil by Basil Hallward, an artist infatuated by Dorian's beauty. Through Basil, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton, and he soon is enthralled by the aristocrat's hedonistic worldview: that beauty and sensual fulfilment are the only things worth pursuing in life. Suddenly understanding that his beauty will fade, Dorian expresses the desire to sell his soul, to ensure that the picture, rather than he, will age and fade. The wish is granted, and Dorian pursues a libertine life of varied and amoral experiences, while staying young and beautiful; all the while his portrait ages and records every sin. Of The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde modestly observes "an idea that is as old as the history of literature but to which I have given a new form" and "Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry is what the world thinks of me: Dorian is what I would like to be-in other ages, perhaps." His literary creation, rich with literary allusions and philosophical questions, appalled his first readers, but soon spawned a continuous series of screen and stage adaptions.

Autor

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (1854 - 1900) was an Irish playwright, novelist, essayist and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. He is remembered for his epigrams, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, his plays, as well as the circumstances of his imprisonment and early death. Wilde's parents were successful Anglo-Irish Dublin intellectuals. 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 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 then returned to London where he worked prolifically as a journalist. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversation, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Benediction Classics
• Seitenzahl: 156
• Erscheinungstermin: 2. September 2017
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 240mm x 161mm x 13mm
• Gewicht: 405g
• ISBN-13: 9781781398555
• ISBN-10: 1781398550
• Artikelnr.: 49113035