Oscar Wilde On Dress

Oscar Wilde On Dress

Oscar Wilde On Dress

Oscar Wilde On Dress

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Overview

—Including "The Philosophy of Dress" by Oscar Wilde—
In print for the first time in 128 years.
In book form for the first time ever.
It is rare that an important contribution by a major author goes unrecorded by bibliographers, unrecognized by historians, and ultimately unappreciated by the modern reader. Rarer still if the author is Oscar Wilde, the famous poet, writer, dramatist, and much quoted wit, who has been the subject of continual interest and analysis since his death in 1900.
Oscar Wilde is an artist and personality who is still relevant today: a virtual industry has built up around him. Hundreds of books have been written about various aspects of his life, and large volumes of scholarly research into his works continue to be published. So it would be surprising if a central work by Wilde has lain dormant until now. But such has been the fate of his essay The Philosophy Of Dress, which first appeared in the New-York Tribune in 1885.
That essay now forms the centerpiece to this unique collection of Wilde’s theories on dress. But the work is not only important as a discovered piece of writing, it is also essentially the missing text of Wilde’s many spoken lectures on Dress that were thought to have been unrecorded.
In addition to the essay, this book contains generously annotated and illustrated chapters that analyze the importance of dress in the historical context of Wilde’s career, together with a comprehensive review of the inspiration, trends, and source material that informed his philosophy. As a compendium there are also several period articles by Wilde on dress and fashion, along with related, but rarely published, letters on the subject that together form an instructional and entertaining discourse between Wilde and the other correspondents.
The result is a thorough examination of Wilde’s relationship to dress—a previously overlooked aspect in Wilde studies—which should prove to be of interest not only to Wilde scholars, but also to anyone who enjoys his style of writing. Oscar Wilde continues to be favorably reappraised as one of the most culturally avant garde tastemakers of the late nineteenth century. In an ever fashion-conscious world it is fitting that the themes explored, like the author himself, are still relevant. In this respect the book will also be of historical value to fashion students, historians, and practitioners.

Product Details

BN ID: 2940148545248
Publisher: CSM Press
Publication date: 09/24/2013
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 198
Sales rank: 786,330
File size: 5 MB

About the Author

John Cooper has spent 30 years in the study of Oscar Wilde. He is a long-standing member of the Oscar Wilde Society in London, a founding member of the Oscar Wilde Society of America, and a former manager of the Victorian Society In America. He has lectured on Wilde and is a contributor to academic journals including The Wildean and Oscholars. Online he is the author and editor of the noncommercial archive Oscar Wilde in America and moderator of the Oscar Wilde Internet discussion group at Yahoo. For the last 12 years he has specialized in new and unique research into Oscar Wilde in New York, where he conducts guided walking tours based on the visits of Oscar Wilde. In 2012 John rediscovered the essay The Philosophy Of Dress by Wilde that forms the centerpiece to this book.

Oscar Fingall O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born in Dublin in 1854. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin and Magdalen College, Oxford where, a disciple of Pater, he founded an aesthetic cult. In 1884 he married Constance Lloyd, and his two sons were born in 1885 and 1886.
His novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), and social comedies Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), A Woman of No Importance (1893), An Ideal Husband (1895), and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), established his reputation. In 1895, following his libel action against the Marquess of Queesberry, Wilde was sentenced to two years' imprisonment for homosexual conduct, as a result of which he wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), and his confessional letter De Profundis (1905). On his release from prison in 1897 he lived in obscurity in Europe, and died in Paris in 1900.
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