Wilde's Intentions: The Artist in his Criticism

by Lawrence Danson

Overview

What were Wilde's intentions? They had always been suspect, from the time of Poems, when the charge was plagiarism, to his trials, when the charge was sodomy. In Intentions (1891), and in two related essays, "The Portrait of Mr W. H." and "The Soul of Man Under Socialism," Wilde's epigrammatic dazzle and paradoxical subversions both reveal and mask his designs upon fin-de-siécle society. In the first extended study of Wilde's criticism, Lawrence Danson examines these essays/dialogues/fictions and assesses their achievement. He sets Wilde's criticism in context, showing how the son of an Irish patriot sought to create a new ideal of English culture by elevating "lies" above history, leveling the distinction between artist and critic, and ending the sway of "nature"u over liberated human desire.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198183754
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	03/27/1997
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 5.50(h) x 0.63(d)
Lexile:	1390L (what's this?)

About the Author

Princeton University

Table of Contents

Note on Texts and Abbreviations Introduction
1. Intentions
2. 'The Decay of Lying'
3. 'The Truth of Masks'
4. 'Pen, Pencil, and Poison'
5. 'The Portrait of Mr W. H.'
6. 'The Critic as Artist'
7. 'The Soul of Man Under Socialism'
Notes Bibliography Index

Editorial Reviews

"Lawrence Danson's Wilde's Intentions: The Artist and His Criticism provides illuminating and considered readings and contextualizations of Wilde's essays."—Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900

From the Publisher