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Aforismas y paradojas

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Presents a sparkling compilation of Oscar Wilde's witty and ironic observations on the follies, foibles, and complexities of human society, in a collection of aphorisms and paradoxes, translated into Spanish by a noted Colombian historian.

216 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2003

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About the author

Oscar Wilde

5,748 books39.9k followers
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.

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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
Profile Image for José Vitor.
14 reviews
August 30, 2020
“Se você não consegue entender o meu silêncio de nada irá adiantar as palavras, pois é no silêncio das minhas palavras que estão todos os meus maiores sentimentos.”
"Aforismos ou Mensagens Eternas" traz um compilado de frases escritas por Oscar Wilde, influente escritor, poeta e dramaturgo britânico da década de 1890 retiradas de suas diversas obras. Graças a nota introdutória de James Joyce conseguimos compreender pelo menos um pouco quem foi Oscar Wilde, onde ele viveu, o que ele escreveu e quem ele era, o que foi muito importante para mim que não conhecia Oscar Wilde, mas apenas havia ouvido falar de sua obra "O Retrato de Dorian Gray", o que me fez querer saber mais sobre este célebre autor e suas obras. Como o livro contém apenas frases, na maioria das vezes a leitura se torna um pouco maçante e monótona pois além de parecer que apenas jogaram frases aleatórias de suas obras onde muitas acabam retratando as mesmas coisas, também não possuímos o contexto delas, o que faz muitas delas perderem o significado que tinham ao ser lida no conjunto da obra. O livro não só apresenta diversos aforismos de cunho pejorativo, principalmente em relação ao casamento e as mulheres, que na minha opinião se faz desnecessário, uma vez que muitas destas foram ditas por personagens de Wilde, e não por ele mesmo, e que acabam sendo associadas a eles caso o leitor não se informe sobre, como também apresenta diversas frases muito extensas, e, como vemos no título: "Aforismos", esperamos encontrar frases mais curtas. Contudo, o livro apresenta sim alguns ótimos aforismos, mas que ficam escondidos em meio a tantos outros desnecessários e preconceituosos, mas mesmo assim eu consegui extrair alguma ideia sobre quem foi Oscar Wilde em alguns, mas principalmente na nota introdutória e, devido a falta de contexto por se tratar de um compilado apenas, me deu uma certa vontade de saber por quem aquelas frases foram ditas, os personagens que Wilde criou e o universo em que eles viviam, pois se eu me conter apenas com frases soltas, não saberei seus reais significados.
Profile Image for Adriana Bonilla.
705 reviews49 followers
October 18, 2019
Wilde was one of the greatest writers and thinkers of the xix century. Is a great shame, that such a mind and wonderful soul had been taken down by ignorant hateful people who didn't understand life.
Profile Image for ana dutra.
27 reviews
May 24, 2026
eu estava absorvendo aa reflexões de oscar como um estudo até aquele final ,
que me chocou e foi o que mais fez refletir de todos eles
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews