Reviews

Before Oscar Wilde wrote the novels and plays that would make him famous, he perfected a different art: the devastating literary review. This collection gathers his critical writings from the 1880s and early 1890s, when Wilde was known primarily as thevoice of the aesthetic movement rather than as a novelist. Here he dissects the works of his contemporaries with wit that cuts like a blade, his opinions ranging from surprisingly generous to scorchingly merciless. He reviews everyone from Henry James to obscure French dramatists, from Swinburne's poetry to the latest London productions. What emerges is a portrait of Wilde as a critic of formidable intelligence: his tastes, his prejudices, his aesthetic philosophy laid bare in sentences that sparkle with precision. These pages capture a young writer sharpening his craft, building the voice that would later transform English literature. For readers who know Wilde only through his fiction and plays, these reviews reveal the machinery behind the magic - the critical mind that could be as brilliant and as brutal as any character he ever created.