Reviews
Wilde was not merely a writer of fiction and plays - he was one of the finest critical minds of his era, and this collection proves it. Spanning his reviews of poetry, theatre, cookery books, and political philosophy, the essays reveal a mind that could dismantle a mediocre novelist with a single epigram or elevate an overlooked poet with startling generosity. Written in the 1880s and 1890s, these pieces show Wilde engaging with the literary culture of his moment - defending aestheticism, mocking philistinism, and arguing that criticism itself is a creative act. His reviews of theatrical productions are particularly vivid, capturing the Edwardian stage with the same precision he brought to his dialogues. What emerges is not just a portrait of an era's literature, but a manifesto for how to see clearly and write beautifully about art. For readers who know Wilde as a novelist and playwright, these reviews expose the machinery behind the magic - the rigorous, brilliant mind that shaped every sentence, even when passing judgment on others.
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“To be really mediæval one should have no body. To be really modern one should have no soul. To be really Greek one should have no clothes.””
— Oscar Wilde
“Time is a waste of money.””
— Oscar Wilde
“The first duty in life is to be as artificial as possible. What the second duty is no one has as yet discovered.””
— Oscar Wilde
“A truth ceases to be true when more than one person believes in it.””
— Oscar Wilde
“RequiescatTread lightly, she is nearUnder the snow,Speak gently, she can hearThe daisies grow.All her bright golden hairTarnished with rust,She that was young and fairFallen to dust.Lily-like, white as snow,She hardly knewShe was a woman, soSweetly she grew.Coffin-board, heavy stone,Lie on her breast,I vex my heart aloneShe is at rest.Peace, Peace, she cannot hearLyre or sonnet,All my life’s buried here,Heap earth upon it.””
— Oscar Wilde
“And when wind and winter hardenAll the loveless land,It will whisper of the garden,You will understand.””
— Oscar Wilde
“If one tells the truth, one is sure, sooner or later, to be found out.””
— Oscar Wilde
“But we who live in prison, and in whose lives there is no event but sorrow, have to measure time by throbs of pain, and the record of bitter moments. We have nothing else to think of. Suffering”
— Oscar Wilde
“A really well-made buttonhole is the only link between Art and Nature.””
— Oscar Wilde
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Wilde, Oscar. Reviews. Lex, lex-books.com/book/reviews-b449c4fb-be8b-4844-91db-c3fb3ac56df3.Wilde, O. (n.d.). Reviews. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/reviews-b449c4fb-be8b-4844-91db-c3fb3ac56df3Wilde, Oscar. Reviews. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/reviews-b449c4fb-be8b-4844-91db-c3fb3ac56df3.
