Oscar Wilde

The most consistent of all series in terms of language control, length, and quality of story. David R. Hill, Director of the Edinburgh Project on Extensive Reading.

The most consistent of all series in terms of language control, length, and quality of story. David R. Hill, Director of the Edinburgh Project on Extensive Reading.

All four of Oscar Wilde's famous plays in one volume, with an introduction by Emma French. This volume contains the full text of four of Wilde's irrepressible comedies. The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), Wilde's most enduringly popular play, a farcical comedy in which the main characters pretend to be someone they are not, in order to escape the burden of social obligations. An Ideal Husband (1895), exploring corruption and morality, bringing an act of political sin in the heart of the English home. A Woman of No Importance (1893), an audacious drama of social scandal that centres around the revelation of a long-concealed secret. Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), a biting satire on the morals of Victorian society. The Drama Classic Collections bring together the most popular plays from a single author or a particular period. They offer students, actors and theatregoers a series of uncluttered, accessible editions, accompanied by comprehensive introductions.

Da førsteutgaven av William Shakespeares sonetter ble utgitt i 1609, var det med en mystisk dedikasjon til en "Mr W. H." Siden den gang har teoriene vært mange og spekulasjonene flere på hvem denne Mr W. H. kunne være. Det er likevel få som kan måle seg med Wildes kontroversielle bidrag til løsningen på gåten, der han mer enn antyder at sonettene nærmest ble til som et resultat av Shakespeares kjærlighet til en ung mann. I en mesterlig veksling mellom fiksjon og litteraturteori, representert gjennom hans to fortellere: en klassisk anonym fortellerstemme som tar tak i Shakespeares egen samtid, og en ung forsker ved Cambridge som ved hjelp av spor i Shakespeares verk forsøker å resonnere seg frem til et svar, virvles leseren inn i en historie der de to selv får erfare hva besettelse kan føre til. "The Portrait of Mr W. H. is quintessential Wilde, introducing paradox into the realm of speculation and wit into the sphere of art." Peter Ackroyd i forordet til den engelske utgaven.

With detailed analysis of the text, discussions on themes, historical backgrounds and author biographies, York Notes offers students the best insight into the world of English Literature.

From Longman's new Cultural Editions Series, Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, edited by Andrew Elfenbein, includes the novel and contextual materials from the era of Oscar Wilde. This edition of Oscar Wilde's classic work, The Picture of Dorian Gray, highlights the novel's modernity in both its form and its revolutionary content, and traces its links to modernist literature and the culture of modernity alike. Previous editions of the novel have only seen it in a late Victorian context, or as an extension of the aesthetic theories of Walter Pater and the “art for art's sake” movement. As presented in this new edition, however, the freshness and originality of the book emerges, along with its strong social messages. The book is a pastiche of genres that propels nineteenth-century realism into twentieth-century modernism ahead of its own time. Wilde's novel offers a myth for modernity whose hold on the cultural imagination has only strengthened over time-Dorian Gray's uncanny bond with his own portrait underscores the loss of selfhood everyone experiences in a world of images and copies, paves the way for the discourses of homosexuality and the understanding of lifestyle as identity so current today, and provides clues to the mysteries of modern ethics and politics. The edition also emphasizes the role of gender and the rise of female emancipation underlying the Sybil Vane subplot, a focus on women that intensifies the book's relevance to modern transformations of men and women alike.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY IRVINE WELSHDorian is a good-natured young man until he discovers the power of his own exceptional beauty. As he gradually sinks deep into a frivolous, glamorous world of selfish luxury, he apparently remains physically unchanged by the stresses of his corrupt lifestyle and untouched by age. But up in his attic, hidden behind a curtain, his portrait tells a different story...