Essays and Lectures [Formato Kindle]

One .of the nice things about being a Kindle owner is the ability to add unlikely pieces by well-known writers for little or no money. In this case we are offered Essays and Lectures by Oscar Wilde. Listing, as of review date: free. If you're an Oscar Wilde fan this is a great way to take possession of items not usually thought about when building an Oscar Wilde collection.

There are seven selections in this book amounting to about 200 pages of reading. Oscar Wilde topics include the history of historical criticism, the pre-Raphaelite movement, several different perspectives on art especially decorative art, a curious piece on the then new institution of artist's models and finally three or four so-called "poems in prose". If you are used to the witticisms and clever wordplay of Lady Windermere's Fan or The Importance of Being Earnest, you may find these readings rather dry. For me the poems in prose were somewhat fun. I found it best to not read the essays to intensely.

This is not a very long book. Its proper audience is fans of Oscar Wilde willing to see him in a different light. His essay and lectures style is very much the essay and lectures style of his time. It is not so much about documenting opinion as, dramatizing it. Oscar Wilde is an intelligent and thoughtful man but given to too many generalities and universal statements. "All art..." or "all artists..." and so forth without any thought that there might be another opinion or another possibility.

Technical note: This e editin includes about 22 footnotes. The system for clicking on the number to read the footnote was not operational.

Bottom line Oscar Wilde Essays and Lectures is worth what I paid. Oscar Wilde fans may appreciate Oscar Wilde the lecturer, and would be essayists can benefit from studying intelligent period writing.

I was surprised to see this was an old library book. Sadly two of the pages were torn and there was permanent marker on the inside cover and title page. Thankfully the recipient did not mind these.