PDF Books in Academic and Text
Refine Search
Miscellanies
by Oscar WildeThe concluding volume of any collected edition is unavoidably fragmentary and desultory. And if this particular volume is no exception to a general tendency, it presents points of view in the author's literary career which may have escaped his greatest admirers and detractors. The wide range of his knowledge and interests is more apparent than in..
Impressions of America
by Oscar WildeOscar Wilde visited America in the year 1882. Interest in the aethetic School, of which he was already the acknowledged master, had sometime previously spread to the United States, and it is said that the production of the Gilbert and Sullivan opera, Patience, in which he and his disciples were held up to ridicule, determined him to pay a visit to ..
The Soul of Man
by Oscar WildeMiscellaneous aphorisms, followed by The Soul of Man.The mystery of love is greater than the mystery of death.Women are made to be loved, not to be understood.It is absurd to have a hard and fast rule about what one should read andwhat one shouldn't. Moren than half of modern culture depends on whatone shouldn't read.Women, as someone says, love wi..
Shorter Prose Pieces
by Oscar WildePure Greek it is, with the grave low forehead, the exquisitely arched brow; the noble chiselling of the mouth, shaped as if it were the mouthpiece of an instrument of music; the supreme and splendid curve of the cheek; the augustly pillared throat which bears it all: it is Greek, because the lines which compose it are so definite and so strong, and..
Children in Prison and Other Cruelties of Prison Life
by Oscar WildeThe circumstance which called forth this letter is a woeful one for Christian England. Martin, the Reading warder, is found guilty of feeding the hungry, nursing the sick, of being kindly and humane. These are his offences in plain unofficial language. This pamphlet is tendered to earnest persons as evidence that the prison system is opposed to all..
For Love of the King - A Burmese Masque
by Oscar WildeThe very interesting and richly colored masque or pantomimic play which is here printed in book form for the first time, was invented sometime in 1894 or possibly a little earlier. It was written, not for publication, but as a personal gift to the author's friend and friend of his family, Mrs. Chan Toon, and was sent to her with the letter that fo..
Charmides, and Other Poems
by Oscar WildeWilde's Poems, a selection of which is given in this volume, were first published in volume form in 1881, and were reprinted four times before the end of 1882. A new Edition with additional poems, including Ravenna, The Sphinx, and The Ballad of Reading Goal, was first published (limited issues on hand-made paper and Japanese vellum) by Methuen &a..
Views and Reviews
by Henry JamesThose whose palates are accustomed to the subtle flavours of the wines of the Rhine and Moselle can smack their lips and name the vintage at the first taste. Likewise any one fairly familiar with the work of Mr. James during his forty years of literary activity can, after the reading of a single page taken at random, judge with a remarkable accurac..