Why Read Wilde? is an engaging and essential introduction to one of the most important and enigmatic writers of the nineteenth century. It argues that Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) is our Victorian Contemporary whose writing tells us as much about ourselves as the nineteenth-century audiences he entertained, flattered and satirised.
Neil Sammells opens by describing the fascinating, ballistic arc of his life and his descent from literary and public stardom to disgrace, prison, exile and poverty. The book follows Wilde from Dublin, Oxford and London to America where he became a celebrity Influencer on artistic taste and interior design. It describes his ideas on art, their modernity, and how they shaped The Picture of Dorian Gray and his comedy dramas, especially The Importance of Being Earnest. It also looks at how he has lived on in the work of contemporary writers, filmmakers, and rock and pop musicians, inspired by his dandyism, wit and attitude, and examines the complexity of mapping Wilde onto contemporary definitions of sexuality or acceptability.
This concise guide will be an invaluable resource for students of Irish Literature, nineteenth-century literature, fin de siècle literature, decadence, and literature and gender studies, and of interest to the general reader who wishes to know more about Wilde, his times, and his enduring relevance.