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Salomé: A Tragedy in One Act

1893

Oscar Wilde

Salomé: A Tragedy in One Act

Oscar Wilde

1893

Translated by Alfred Bruce Douglas

Salomé is Oscar Wilde's single foray into tragedy, and it burns with a beauty that wounds. Written in French in 1892, this one-act gem anatomizes desire as a force that devours both the desired and the desirer. On the terrace of Herod's palace, the young princess fixates on Jokanaan, the imprisoned prophet whose body she has never touched, whose voice she cannot stop hearing. His rejection only intensifies her hunger. When Herod offers her anything she wishes in exchange for her dance, Salomé names her price: the prophet's head. The play's shattering final image finds her clutching that severed face, kissing the cold lips, and discovering that victory tastes of ash. Wilde constructs his tragedy in language so lush it becomes almost unbearable, each line saturated with color, scent, and unspoken longing. The result is not merely a biblical retelling but a meditation on the impossibility of desire, the way we destroy ourselves pursuing what can never satisfy. It remains a landmark of the Aesthetic movement, a work that proves Wilde could make darkness as seductive as wit.

Project Gutenberg

A dramatic work written in the late 19th century, specifically during the Victorian era. This play is a one-act tragedy...

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Salomé: A Tragedy in One Act
Salomé: A Tragedy in One Act
Project Gutenberg · 54 pages
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Salomé
Salomé
Project Gutenberg · 45 pages (French)
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Salomé
Salomé
Project Gutenberg · 47 pages (French)
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Salome: Dramo En Unu Akto
Salome: Dramo En Unu Akto
Project Gutenberg · 44 pages (Esperanto)
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