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奥斯卡·王尔德传
关于王尔德的一切都是不同寻常的。在这位十九世纪最令人眼花缭乱，最迷人，也是最离谱的文人身上，我们时代最伟大的传记作家之一理查德·艾尔曼找到了自己最引人瞩目的主角。这部书籍让人们产生了情绪上的共鸣，书中充满真实的风格和对话，其评论性阐述含义微妙，让传主的肖像就此获得耀眼的生命力。
立足于丰富的史实，其中很多资料还是初次问世，又依靠在《莎乐美》、《道林·格雷的画像》、《不可儿戏》和其他作品中发现的传主新面目——艾尔曼揭示了一个更甚于传统形象的王尔德，更伟大也更感人，这个王尔德不但是十九世纪八十年代和九十年代的化身，甚至在今天，他也能以那种撩人的才智挑战我们的假设。这部书籍是传记作家之艺术的巅峰，通过它，以其独特且完整的形象，王尔德又回到了我们当中。
立足于丰富的史实，其中很多资料还是初次问世，又依靠在《莎乐美》、《道林·格雷的画像》、《不可儿戏》和其他作品中发现的传主新面目——艾尔曼揭示了一个更甚于传统形象的王尔德，更伟大也更感人，这个王尔德不但是十九世纪八十年代和九十年代的化身，甚至在今天，他也能以那种撩人的才智挑战我们的假设。这部书籍是传记作家之艺术的巅峰，通过它，以其独特且完整的形象，王尔德又回到了我们当中。
976 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1973
16 people are currently reading
153 people want to read
About the author
Richard Ellmann
99 books111 followersRichard David Ellmann was an American literary critic and biographer of the Irish writers James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, and William Butler Yeats. He won the U.S. National Book Award for Nonfiction for James Joyce (1959), one of the most acclaimed literary biographies of the 20th century. Its 1982 revised edition won James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Ellmann was a liberal humanist, and his academic work focuses on the major modernist writers of the 20th century.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
April 6, 2024
Arguably if one has read plenty about Oscar Wilde it is difficult to imagine reading another biography and finding much different or new information. But Martin Fido has done an excellent job in covering the major events in his life (and there were plenty) and bringing in many nuances that just might not be as well known. The result is an excellent and sympathetic biography that is supported by dozens of superb illustrations of people and places relevant to Wilde's turbulent life and times.
The son of an eye surgeon and a poet, Oscar grew up well aware of scandal as his father was something of a philanderer and got himself into numerous scrapes but Oscar never really doubted that his parents' name was unsmirched. As a youngster his mother dressed him in girl's clothes but as a 10-year-old young boy he was sent to Portora Royal School and from there he went on to begin his undergraduate career at Trinity College, Dublin.
He was not one of the notable undergraduates of his day at Trinity despite his academic success; it was said he 'whored and drank his way through college in a way that his fellow students respected'. He did win a scholarship worth £95 per year for four years to Magdalen College, Oxford and his attendance there brought him into contact with such as Ruskin, Pater and Newman. And he quickly realised that the highest reputation within the university was won by making some sort of name outside it. And this he did with aplomb.
He began to write, poetry - his first published volume was regarded as quite poor - and art exhibition reviews for Irish journals back home. He was a somewhat troublesome student and he used Oxford adroitly, wringing all the honour and notoriety that he could from being there. His time there certainly laid the firm foundations of the legendary Oscar Wilde as he sought to be known as the friend and admirer of the loveliest women of the day including Lily Langtry, Ellen Terry, Sarah Bernhardt and Helen Modjeska.
Despite this reputation and these friendships and the fact that he had married Constance Lloyd on 29 May 1884, the notion that Oscar was homosexual was scouted by his friends and acquaintances as early as 1886 and many thought that he was probably bisexual. He befriended the artist James McNeill Whistler - a friendship that was eventually to end acrimoniously - and, as one of the leading aesthetes of the day he was parodied by Gilbert and Sullivan in their opera 'Patience'. This led to Oscar embarking on a successful lecture tour of America where he was a great social success.
On his return he spent a short time in London before visiting Paris where he stayed three months and enjoyed the friendship of Victor Hugo, the 'greatest lion' that he met and the Bohemian Paul Verlaine and he also visited Sarah Bernhardt on two occasions. In addition he was strongly influenced by Balzac and Baudelaire and it was in Paris that he met Robert Sherard who became a loyal friend and his biographer.
Back in London he briefly edited 'The Woman's World' and began to write his plays, which were supported by another Irishman, George Bernard Shaw. He met Frank Harris whose editorial skills he admired and he became firm friends with Robert 'Bobbie' Ross, who was also later to write extensively of Wilde.
He continued to write and the culminating triumph of the years 1888 to 1891 was the novel 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' and he became a somebody in the literary world. He had at least a nodding acquaintance with such as Henry James, Kipling and George Moore, the last named who envied and disliked him but who was compelled to admit the charm of his company. 'Lady Windermere's Fan', 'A Woman of No Importance' and 'An Ideal Husband' sealed his literary fame.
But then he met Lord Alfred Douglas, 'Bosie' by nickname, and his downfall began. Bosie's father the Marquess of Queensberry began it all when he left his card at Oscar's club with a note to Oscar stating that he was 'posing [as a] somdomite' (not a good speller the Marquess!) and this began the series of well-known and well recorded events that were to lead to Oscar's downfall.
It all led to a two-year jail sentence that at least spawned 'The Ballad of Reading Gaol' and 'De Profundis' but on his release led to exile in Paris where he lived as Sebastian Melmoth and went on occasional trips to Italy with Bosie. An ear problem contracted in jail contributed to his eventual death and he was perhaps aware that this was to be the short-term outcome for as 1900 approached he said, '[I]t would be really more than the English could stand if another century began and I were still alive.' By November he was dying of meningitis and he passed away on 30 November, 1900.
What a character, what a literary output, what a wit and what an experience it must have been to have known him (he did visit my hometown of Blackpool for one of his lectures that I have written about in my short run publications but, of course, that was very, very many years before I arrived on the scene!). Martin Fido gives us the next best thing with a splendid biography of the man.
The son of an eye surgeon and a poet, Oscar grew up well aware of scandal as his father was something of a philanderer and got himself into numerous scrapes but Oscar never really doubted that his parents' name was unsmirched. As a youngster his mother dressed him in girl's clothes but as a 10-year-old young boy he was sent to Portora Royal School and from there he went on to begin his undergraduate career at Trinity College, Dublin.
He was not one of the notable undergraduates of his day at Trinity despite his academic success; it was said he 'whored and drank his way through college in a way that his fellow students respected'. He did win a scholarship worth £95 per year for four years to Magdalen College, Oxford and his attendance there brought him into contact with such as Ruskin, Pater and Newman. And he quickly realised that the highest reputation within the university was won by making some sort of name outside it. And this he did with aplomb.
He began to write, poetry - his first published volume was regarded as quite poor - and art exhibition reviews for Irish journals back home. He was a somewhat troublesome student and he used Oxford adroitly, wringing all the honour and notoriety that he could from being there. His time there certainly laid the firm foundations of the legendary Oscar Wilde as he sought to be known as the friend and admirer of the loveliest women of the day including Lily Langtry, Ellen Terry, Sarah Bernhardt and Helen Modjeska.
Despite this reputation and these friendships and the fact that he had married Constance Lloyd on 29 May 1884, the notion that Oscar was homosexual was scouted by his friends and acquaintances as early as 1886 and many thought that he was probably bisexual. He befriended the artist James McNeill Whistler - a friendship that was eventually to end acrimoniously - and, as one of the leading aesthetes of the day he was parodied by Gilbert and Sullivan in their opera 'Patience'. This led to Oscar embarking on a successful lecture tour of America where he was a great social success.
On his return he spent a short time in London before visiting Paris where he stayed three months and enjoyed the friendship of Victor Hugo, the 'greatest lion' that he met and the Bohemian Paul Verlaine and he also visited Sarah Bernhardt on two occasions. In addition he was strongly influenced by Balzac and Baudelaire and it was in Paris that he met Robert Sherard who became a loyal friend and his biographer.
Back in London he briefly edited 'The Woman's World' and began to write his plays, which were supported by another Irishman, George Bernard Shaw. He met Frank Harris whose editorial skills he admired and he became firm friends with Robert 'Bobbie' Ross, who was also later to write extensively of Wilde.
He continued to write and the culminating triumph of the years 1888 to 1891 was the novel 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' and he became a somebody in the literary world. He had at least a nodding acquaintance with such as Henry James, Kipling and George Moore, the last named who envied and disliked him but who was compelled to admit the charm of his company. 'Lady Windermere's Fan', 'A Woman of No Importance' and 'An Ideal Husband' sealed his literary fame.
But then he met Lord Alfred Douglas, 'Bosie' by nickname, and his downfall began. Bosie's father the Marquess of Queensberry began it all when he left his card at Oscar's club with a note to Oscar stating that he was 'posing [as a] somdomite' (not a good speller the Marquess!) and this began the series of well-known and well recorded events that were to lead to Oscar's downfall.
It all led to a two-year jail sentence that at least spawned 'The Ballad of Reading Gaol' and 'De Profundis' but on his release led to exile in Paris where he lived as Sebastian Melmoth and went on occasional trips to Italy with Bosie. An ear problem contracted in jail contributed to his eventual death and he was perhaps aware that this was to be the short-term outcome for as 1900 approached he said, '[I]t would be really more than the English could stand if another century began and I were still alive.' By November he was dying of meningitis and he passed away on 30 November, 1900.
What a character, what a literary output, what a wit and what an experience it must have been to have known him (he did visit my hometown of Blackpool for one of his lectures that I have written about in my short run publications but, of course, that was very, very many years before I arrived on the scene!). Martin Fido gives us the next best thing with a splendid biography of the man.
October 24, 2012
Ironía por doquier, el personaje principal, el protagonista.
February 1, 2021
Biographies must always trace the fine line between "a tract so general as to mimic wholesale ignorance" and "a bumper volume containing everything and the kitchen sink". This 1973 biography of Oscar Wilde by Martin Fido does that very well to my taste. The narrative is competent and seems well-balanced and I especially liked the wealth of well-chosen illustrations. Definitely a work to collect for Wilde fans and people interested in the 'Fin de Siecle'.
December 5, 2024
I particularly enjoyed the plays ‘Lady Windermere’s Fan’ and ‘ A Woman of No Importance’. Both dealt with issues of gendered expectations and morality with wit. Wilde’s ability to convey important moral questions and realities with wit is both funny and challenging. The generalisations regarding relationships particularly from a gendered specific perspective, usually through humorous dialogue, are not only relatable and funny to me as a modern reader but also makes me question to what extent these witty generalisations are true reflections of reality.
April 28, 2025
Oscar Wilde is a genius
December 5, 2025
「適度的東西都不會是好的。只有用過分的方式蹂躪它，你才能了解到它的好處。」
讀完了。後勁好強，我將重刷，書評晚點補。先貼個喜歡且我覺得可以在一定程度上概括王爾德人生的、他本人的語錄。
讀完了。後勁好強，我將重刷，書評晚點補。先貼個喜歡且我覺得可以在一定程度上概括王爾德人生的、他本人的語錄。
June 28, 2020
This inexpensive coffee-table book contains a brief life of Oscar Wilde and well-chosen illustrations. The author of the text, Martin Fido, taxes Wilde with being a minor writer, although he grants that the novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray and his poem, “The Ballad of Reading Gaol” are masterpieces. The plays—notably “The Importance of Being Earnest”—were the best contribution to the British stage since the Restoration comedies and taught Wilde’s fellow Irish Protestant, Shaw, a thing or two about witty dialogue. And the book-length, spleen-filled epistle to his “Bosie,” Sir Alfred Douglas, De Profundis, gets a high rating as well.
Wilde’s fame rests more, however, on his downfall. As Fido casts it, Wilde became the victim of his own hubris in having Douglas’s father, the Marquess of Queensbury, arrested and put on trial for libel. That vigorous but eccentric exemplar of British manhood, remembered today for codifying the rules of boxing, had accused Wilde of being a “sondomite” and blamed him for corrupting his son, Alfred (although it was far too late for that by the time the two met).
The suit led to Wilde’s sentencing to two years’ hard labor in prison, from which he emerged a broken man. His wife changed her name and took their two sons to the continent to escape notoriety. As Fido tells it, the severe sentence led to a slackening of the hounding of homosexuals in Britain for a half-century. When it flared up again after World War Two (Alan Turing, for example), another wave of revulsion over the penalties set in, leading to decriminalization.
This then is the legacy of Oscar Wilde. His success during his lifetime was not primarily literary, but social. He was a brilliant dinner guest, sought after by aristocrats not because they thought of him as one of their own (as Wilde wished to believe) but as witty entertainment for their other guests. When lampooned in Punch and by Gilbert and Sullivan, he took it in good nature. Among his deepest friendships were leading actresses and beauties of the day, Sarah Bernhardt, Ellen Terry, and Lily Langtry. Fido stresses Wilde’s qualities of generosity and sympathy.
All in all, this book is a good introduction to the life and times of a pop star from the last years of the Victorian era.
Wilde’s fame rests more, however, on his downfall. As Fido casts it, Wilde became the victim of his own hubris in having Douglas’s father, the Marquess of Queensbury, arrested and put on trial for libel. That vigorous but eccentric exemplar of British manhood, remembered today for codifying the rules of boxing, had accused Wilde of being a “sondomite” and blamed him for corrupting his son, Alfred (although it was far too late for that by the time the two met).
The suit led to Wilde’s sentencing to two years’ hard labor in prison, from which he emerged a broken man. His wife changed her name and took their two sons to the continent to escape notoriety. As Fido tells it, the severe sentence led to a slackening of the hounding of homosexuals in Britain for a half-century. When it flared up again after World War Two (Alan Turing, for example), another wave of revulsion over the penalties set in, leading to decriminalization.
This then is the legacy of Oscar Wilde. His success during his lifetime was not primarily literary, but social. He was a brilliant dinner guest, sought after by aristocrats not because they thought of him as one of their own (as Wilde wished to believe) but as witty entertainment for their other guests. When lampooned in Punch and by Gilbert and Sullivan, he took it in good nature. Among his deepest friendships were leading actresses and beauties of the day, Sarah Bernhardt, Ellen Terry, and Lily Langtry. Fido stresses Wilde’s qualities of generosity and sympathy.
All in all, this book is a good introduction to the life and times of a pop star from the last years of the Victorian era.
December 25, 2015
Pude disfrutar de este cuento corto, demasiado corto para mi gusto sobre un curioso fanatasma. Me gustó el estilo de Wilde, irónico y refinado. Este fantasma tiene una personalidad, diremos arrolladora y está presente a lo largo de toda la historia. Lo recomiendo totalmente ya que es un cuento, sencillo y divertido, que ha servido como base para un montón de historias.
April 11, 2013
Entre la elegancia del lenguaje, el descaro con que retrata a la sociedad (que pareciera no haber cambiado) y los sentimientos que logra captar en letras, ya soy fan oficial del señor Wilde.
April 15, 2019
Estos cuentos en esta edición es una relectura siempre es bueno volver a leer a pacer wilde
October 2, 2025
“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
June 8, 2025
A wonderful collection of plays! My reviews for them:
Lady Windermere's Fan: Funny, Witty, and delightfully engaging. Lady Windermere is a snobbish character that one eventually feels sympathy for, and Wilde's trademark epigrams are rife throughout the work. It is short but well written, and very entertaining. 4.5 Stars.
A Woman of No Importance: My favorite play in the collection. Not only does it have some amazing lines (such as "Who, being loved, is poor?"), it has a wonderful overall message about society's standards and their impacts on the people who try to meet them. Wilde is excellent at creating a complex work that is still pleasant to read, and he does so extremely well in this play. The ending of act IV is particularly good. 5 stars.
An Ideal Husband: A decent and humorous play about dishonesty, class, wealth, and politics. I found the storyline less engaging than in Wilde's other plays, but it was still full of lovable (and hatable) characters, like Miss Cheveley and Lord Goring. A decent read. 3 Stars.
The Importance of Being Earnest: This was my second time reading this work, and I enjoyed it much more after taking more time to engaging with it and accustoming myself to Wilde's style of writing. This play is laugh out loud funny and has a great storyline. The neologism "Bunburying" is comedy enough, alongside the other jokes Wilde includes in the play. I can see why this is one of Wilde's more popular works. 4.5 Stars.
Salomé: I don't want to say that I didn't like this play, but I'm not sure that I completely understood it. Once I put together that Jokanaan is John the Baptist, I understood which Bible story it was focused on, and I could follow the plot better, but I feel as if some of the play may have gone over my head. Originally written in French to avoid British censorship laws, this play is less humorous and more philosophical than the others in this collection. I would recommend it, but I think I need to reread it to be able to rate it fairly.
Lady Windermere's Fan: Funny, Witty, and delightfully engaging. Lady Windermere is a snobbish character that one eventually feels sympathy for, and Wilde's trademark epigrams are rife throughout the work. It is short but well written, and very entertaining. 4.5 Stars.
A Woman of No Importance: My favorite play in the collection. Not only does it have some amazing lines (such as "Who, being loved, is poor?"), it has a wonderful overall message about society's standards and their impacts on the people who try to meet them. Wilde is excellent at creating a complex work that is still pleasant to read, and he does so extremely well in this play. The ending of act IV is particularly good. 5 stars.
An Ideal Husband: A decent and humorous play about dishonesty, class, wealth, and politics. I found the storyline less engaging than in Wilde's other plays, but it was still full of lovable (and hatable) characters, like Miss Cheveley and Lord Goring. A decent read. 3 Stars.
The Importance of Being Earnest: This was my second time reading this work, and I enjoyed it much more after taking more time to engaging with it and accustoming myself to Wilde's style of writing. This play is laugh out loud funny and has a great storyline. The neologism "Bunburying" is comedy enough, alongside the other jokes Wilde includes in the play. I can see why this is one of Wilde's more popular works. 4.5 Stars.
Salomé: I don't want to say that I didn't like this play, but I'm not sure that I completely understood it. Once I put together that Jokanaan is John the Baptist, I understood which Bible story it was focused on, and I could follow the plot better, but I feel as if some of the play may have gone over my head. Originally written in French to avoid British censorship laws, this play is less humorous and more philosophical than the others in this collection. I would recommend it, but I think I need to reread it to be able to rate it fairly.
July 3, 2016
Me dio mucho más de lo que pensaba Wilde. Lo mejor de la vida no es la belleza,porque tu alma puede estar pudriéndose. Atrapa el deseo de muchos en esta época y la carencia de la mayoría en todos lo tiempos. Una narrativa fluida que te hace ir de la historía son brincos, al contrario te permite leer y disfrutar la escencia de la novela misma. Altamente recomendada. Es un placer leer está obra. Y pensar que mucho se habla de Dorian pero cuántos de verdad lo han leído? yo ya, jejeje.
October 8, 2013
Me encanto el retrato de Dorian grey, de principio a fin. Esta historia estallena de pequeñas lecciones, un humor negro exquisito, personajes excéntricos y el final de la historia es tan oportuno. Una novela con final de cuento. Por lo demás los cuentos del libro y las obras de teatro son muy entretenidas. De profundis si me costo digerirla pero es una lectura que de igual manera te engancha.
May 14, 2022
The Importance of Being Earnest is a gem. It artfully integrates Wilde's bon mots and love of the absurd with an intricate and amusing plot. The other four plays are surprisingly moral, with the message that love and generosity are of far greater value than platitudes and principles. The final play, Salome, is bizarre, but probably beautiful in its original language, which was French.
October 24, 2009
esta recopilación de obras del escritor Oscar Wilde me gusto mucho ya que en su libro deprofundis, muetra al hombre que amo y cuya sociedad de aquella epoca no lo acepto la cual lo reprendio dejandolo en la misera.
y en sus demás obras nos muestra su gran talento como escritor.
y en sus demás obras nos muestra su gran talento como escritor.
April 22, 2017
Leído:
El fantasma de Canterville
El cumpleaños de una infanta
El pescador y su alma
El príncipe feliz
El ruiseñor de la rosa
El amigo leal
La importancia de llamarse Ernesto
El abanico de Lady Windermere
El fantasma de Canterville
El cumpleaños de una infanta
El pescador y su alma
El príncipe feliz
El ruiseñor de la rosa
El amigo leal
La importancia de llamarse Ernesto
El abanico de Lady Windermere
September 17, 2021
Esta selección de obras de Wilde es una muestra del gran escritor que era y que todo lo hacía bien. Va de la novela al cuento, la epístola y luego al teatro. Sin duda me quedo con “El retrato de Dorian Gray”, “El abanico de Lady Windermere” y el cuento “El príncipe feliz”.
May 2, 2017
I became intrigued with Oscar Wilde after I read The Picture of Dorian Gray, so I had to read a book about his life.
Want to read
February 3, 2009ErEs bIeN ChIdA ErEs lA MejOr hErMaNa dEl mUndO Te qUiErO MiL
March 26, 2012
Excelentes cuentos, que harán sacar una sonrisa tanto a chicos como adultos. Una pluma exquisita...
May 21, 2023
Solo leí El retrato de Dorian Gray
November 23, 2016
Fenomenal la manera exquisita de criticar a la sociedad. Me gusta el cinismo para burlarse de las cosas a las que comúnmente le damos demasiada importancia.
April 28, 2021
Como cualquier clásico, un disfrute necesario.
Todas las obras de este compendio son geniales, aunque me quedo con El retrato de Dorian Grey por todo el simbolismo que entraña
Todas las obras de este compendio son geniales, aunque me quedo con El retrato de Dorian Grey por todo el simbolismo que entraña
January 26, 2023
The plays are repetitive in structure but beautiful nonetheless. Salome is a bit underwhelming imo but honest to god she is kind of an icon.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews