Αποφθέγματα και αφορισμοί

by Oscar Wilde, Μιχάλης Παπαντωνόπουλος (Translator)

Σε κάθε απόφθεγμα ή αφορισμό του βιβλίου εδρεύει το πνεύμα ενός από τους πλέον ιδιοφυείς καλλιτέχνες της εποχής του, και όχι μόνο, παγκοσμίως: παιγνιώδες, σαρκαστικό, πικρό και πικραμένο μέσα από προκλητικές παραδοξολογίες, οξυδερκές χιούμορ και ανατρεπτική ειρωνεία, και αποκαλύπτεται η σκέψη του κυριότερου εκπροσώπου του κινήματος του Αισθητισμού που εμφανίστηκε στη Βρετανία στα τέλη του 19ου αιώνα.

Περιεχόμενα
Εισαγωγή
Σημείωμα του μεταφραστή
ΑΠΟΦΘΕΓΜΑΤΑ ΚΑΙ ΑΦΟΡΙΣΜΟΙ
Το πορτραίτο του Ντόριαν Γκρέυ
Ο ιδανικός σύζυγος
Η βεντάλια της Λαίδης Ουίντερμηρ
Η σημασία του να είσαι σοβαρός
Μια γυναίκα χωρίς σημασία
Ρητά και σοφίες προς χρήση των νέων
Οσκαριάνα
Το φάντασμα των Κάντερβιλ
Η παρακμή του ψεύδους
Η ψυχή του ανθρώπου στον Σοσιαλισμό
Ο κριτικός ως καλλιτέχνης
Credo
L'envoi
Η αγγλική αναγέννηση της τέχνης
Σημειώσις
Όσκαρ Ουάιλντ

Genres: Philosophy

207 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1905

About the author

Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and his criminal conviction for gross indecency for homosexual acts.
Wilde's parents were Anglo-Irish intellectuals in Dublin. In his youth, Wilde learned to speak fluent French and German. At university, he read Greats; he demonstrated himself to be an exceptional classicist, first at Trinity College Dublin, then at Magdalen College, Oxford. He became associated with the emerging philosophy of aestheticism, led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles.
Wilde tried his hand at various literary activities: he wrote a play, published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on "The English Renaissance" in art and interior decoration, and then returned to London where he lectured on his American travels and wrote reviews for various periodicals. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversational skill, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day. At the turn of the 1890s, he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into what would be his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). Wilde returned to drama, writing Salome (1891) in French while in Paris, but it was refused a licence for England due to an absolute prohibition on the portrayal of Biblical subjects on the English stage. Undiscouraged, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late-Victorian London.
At the height of his fame and success, while An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) were still being performed in London, Wilde issued a civil writ against John Sholto Douglas, the 9th Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel. The Marquess was the father of Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. The libel hearings unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and criminal prosecution for gross indecency with other males. The jury was unable to reach a verdict and so a retrial was ordered. In the second trial Wilde was convicted and sentenced to two years' hard labour, the maximum penalty, and was jailed from 1895 to 1897. During his last year in prison he wrote De Profundis (published posthumously in abridged form in 1905), a long letter that discusses his spiritual journey through his trials and is a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure. On the day of his release, he caught the overnight steamer to France, never to return to Britain or Ireland. In France and Italy, he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life.

Reviews

[Yousseif Abdellatif · Rating 4 out of 5]

The vibe was completely off for me in Epigrams & aphorisms until I stopped trying to like the narrator. Once I accepted that Oscar Wilde wanted me uncomfortable, the whole thing opened up. It's a tough hang, but a rewarding one. Good for readers who like difficult people on the page, skip if you need someone to root for.

[Kirsti · Rating 4 out of 5]

"To be really medieval one should have no body. To be really modern one should have no soul. To be really Greek one should have no clothes."

Short but pithy audiobook.

[Elektra Alexaki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Φιλοσοφημένα λογια, λεπτή ειρωνεία, απρόβλεπτο χιούμορ. Προφανής προτίμηση στην ηδονή, τη νεότητα, την Τέχνη. Προς συζήτηση η στάση του απέναντι στις γυναίκες. Αποφθέγματα από τα σημαντικότερα έργα του, όπως το "Πορτρέτο του Ντοριαν Γκρέι" , "Ο ιδανικός σύζυγος" και άλλα.
(Κάποια αποφθέγματα που ξεχώρισα, τα κατέγραψα στο προφίλ μου στο instagram, με το φιλολογικό μου ψευδώνυμο, Ηλέκτρα Αλεξάκη. )
https://www.instagram.com/p/BEbFry9rbZw/

[John Carter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Très amusant—until the last few pages, when the one-liners turn into one- or two-paragraphs on either the strengths or the shortcomings of Americans. Thus leaving a “how tedious” aftertaste. I’ll just have to remember where to leave off the next time.