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The complete works of Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde

Wilde, Oscar;

The complete works of Oscar Wilde

Hamlyn 1977-05 (Hardcover, 958 pages $14.95)

ISBN 0600393720

topics: |  drama | fiction | single-author | wilde

From "The decay of lying"


The Japanese people are the deliberate selfconscious creation of certain
individual artists. If you set a picture by Hokusai, or Hokkei, or any of the
great native painters, beside a real Japanese gentleman or lady, you will see
that there is not the slightest resemblance between them. The actual people
who live in Japan are not unlike the general run of English people; that is
to say, they are extremely commonplace, and have nothing curious or
extraordinary about them. In fact the whole of Japan is a pure
invention. There is no such country, there are no such people. One of our
most charming painters went recently to the Land of the Chrysanthemum in the
foolish hope of seeing the Japanese. All he saw, all he had the chance of
painting, were a few lanterns and some fans. He was quite unable to discover
the inhabitants, as his delightful exhibition at Messrs. Dowdeswell's Gallery
showed only too well. He did not know that the Japanese people are, as I have
said, simply a mode of style, an exquisite fancy of art.


 Something was dead in each of us,
 And what was dead was Hope.
     - The Ballad of Reading Gaol, III:31, 1898

 For he who lives more lives than one
 More deaths than one must die.
     - The Ballad of Reading Gaol, III:37, 1898

 I never saw a man who looked
 With such a wistful eye
 Upon that little tent of blue
 Which prisoners call the sky.
     - The Ballad of Reading Gaol ( (1898)) pt. 1, st. 3

As long as war is regarded as wicked, it will always have its
fascination.
When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular.
     - The Critic as Artist, Pt. 2, 1891

The man who sees both sides of a question is a man who sees absolutely
nothing at all.
     - The Critic as Artist, Pt. 2, 1891

A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is
absolutely fatal.
     - The Critic as Artist, Pt. 2, 1891

Ah! don't say you agree with me. When people agree with me I always
feel that I must be wrong.
	- The Critic as Artist, Pt. 2, 1891

There is no sin except stupidity.
	- The Critic as Artist, Pt. 2, 1891

There is much to be said in favour of modern journalism. By giving us
the opinions of the uneducated, it keeps us in touch with the
ignorance of the community.
	- The Critic as Artist, Pt. 2, 1891

Art never expresses anything but itself.
	- The Decay of Lying 1891

All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man
does. That's his.
	- The Importance of Being Earnest, I, 1895

The amount of women in London who flirt with thei rown husbands is
perfectly scandalous. It looks so bad. It is simply washing one's
clean linen in public.
	- The Importance of Being Earnest, I, 1895

The old-fashioned respect for the young is fast dying out.
	- The Importance of Being Earnest, I, 1895

In married life three is company and two is none.
	- The Importance of Being Earnest, I, 1895

Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it, and the bloom is gone.
	- The Importance of Being Earnest, I, 1895

To lose one parent, Mr Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to
lose both looks like carelessness.
	- The Importance of Being Earnest, I, 1895

I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be
wicked and being really good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.
	- The Importance of Being Earnest, II, 1895

On an occasion of this kind it becomes more than amoral duty to speak
one's mind. It becomes a pleasure.
	- The Importance of Being Earnest, II, 1895

 CECILY. When I see a spade I call it a spade.
 GWENDOLEN. I am glad to say I have never seen a spade. It is obvious
    that our social spheres have been widely different.
	- The Importance of Being Earnest, II, 1895

I never travel without my diary. One should always have something
sensational to read in the train.
	- The Importance of Being Earnest, II, 1895

In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing.
	- The Importance of Being Earnest, III, 1895

Three addresses always inspire confidence, even in tradesmen.
	- The Importance of Being Earnest, III, 1895

Never speak disrespectfully of Society, Algernon. Only people who
can't get into it do that.
	- The Importance of Being Earnest, III, 1895

No woman should ever be quite accurate about her age. It looks so calculating.
	- The Importance of Being Earnest, III, 1895

This suspense is terrible. I hope it will last.
	- The Importance of Being Earnest, III, 1895

It is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all his
life he has been speaking nothing but the truth.
	- The Importance of Being Earnest, III, 1895

Please do not shoot the pianist. He is doing his best.
	- Impressions of America, `Leadville'

I can resist everything except temptation.
	- Lady Windermere's Fan, I, 1891

It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either
charming or tedious.
	- Lady Windermere's Fan, I, 1891

I am the only person in the world I should like to know thoroughly.
	- Lady Windermere's Fan, II, 1891

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
	- Lady Windermere's Fan, III, 1891

CECIL GRAHAM What is a cynic?
LORD DARLINGTON A man who knows the price of everything and the value
  of nothing.
	- Lady Windermere's Fan ( (1892)) act 3

There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well
written, or badly written.
	- The Picture of Dorian Gray, Preface, 1891

All Art is quite useless.
	- The Picture of Dorian Gray, Preface, 1891

There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about,
and that is not being talked about.
	- The Picture of Dorian Gray, Ch. 1, 1891

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.
	- The Picture of Dorian Gray, Ch. 2, 1891

It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances.
	- The Picture of Dorian Gray, Ch. 2, 1891

Women represent the triumph of matter over mind, just as men represent
the triumph of mind over morals.
	- The Picture of Dorian Gray, Ch. 4, 1891

A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure. It is
exquisite, and it leaves one unsatisfied. What more can one want?
	- The Picture of Dorian Gray, Ch. 6, 1891

Anybody can be good in the country.
	- The Picture of Dorian Gray, Ch. 19, 1891

As for the virtuous poor, one can pity them, of course, but one cannot
possibly admire them.
	- The Soul of Man under Socialism 1891

Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for
the people.
	- The Soul of Man under Socialism 1891

Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.
	- The Soul of Man Under Socialism 1891

Twenty years of romance makes a woman look like a ruin; but twenty
years of marriage make her something like a public building.
	- A Woman of No Importance, I, 1893

 MRS ALLONBY. They say, Lady Hunstanton, that when good Americans die
    they go to Paris.
 LADY HUNSTANTON. Indeed? And when bad Americans die, where do they go to?
 LORD ILLINGWORTH. Oh, they go to America.
      (SeeAPPLETONThomas Gold)
	- A Woman of No Importance, I, 1893

The English country gentleman galloping after a fox- the unspeakable
in full pursuit of the uneatable.
	- A Woman of No Importance, I, 1893

One should never trust a woman who tells one her real age. A woman who
would tell one that, would tell one anything.
	- A Woman of No Importance, I, 1893

LORD ILLINGWORTH. The Book of Life begins with a man and a woman in a garden.
MRS ALLONBY. It ends with Revelations.
	- A Woman of No Importance, I, 1893

Moderation is a fatal thing, Lady Hunstanton. Nothing succeeds like excess.
	- A Woman of No Importance, III, 1893

Children begin by loving their parents; after a time they judge them;
rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.
	- A Woman of No Importance ( (1893)) act 2

GERALD. I suppose society is wonderfully delightful!
LORD ILLINGWORTH. To be in it is merely a bore. But to be out of it
    simply a tragedy.
	- A Woman of No Importance ( (1893)) act 3

You should study the Peerage, Gerald...It is the best thing in fiction
the English have ever done.
	- A Woman of No Importance ( (1893)) act 3

The youth of America is their oldest tradition. It has been going on
now for three hundred years.
	- A Woman of No Importance ( (1893)) act 1

I suppose that I shall have to die beyond my means.
	- When told that an operation would be expensive. He is also
	  believed to have said `I am dying beyond my means' on
	  accepting a glass of champagne as he lay on his deathbed
	  Life of Wilde (Sherard)

One would have to have a heart of stone to read the death of Little
Nell without laughing.
	- Lecturing upon Dickens Lives of the Wits (H. Pearson)

A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.
	- Oscariana 1910

The play was a great success, but the audience was a disaster.
	- Referring to a play that had recently failed Attrib.

Who am I to tamper with a masterpiece?
	- Refusing to make alterations to one of his own plays Attrib.

It requires one to assume such indecent postures.
	- Explaining why he did not play cricket Attrib.

If this is the way Queen Victoria treats her prisoners, she doesn't
deserve to have any.
	- Complaining at having to wait in the rain for transport to
	  take him to prison Attrib.

Grief has turned her fair.
	- Referring to the fact that a recently-bereaved lady friend
	  had dyed her hair blonde Attrib.

Work is the curse of the drinking classes.
	- Attrib.

Nothing, except my genius.
	- Replying to a US customs official on being asked if he had
	  anything to declare Attrib., 1882

I should be like a lion in a cave of savage Daniels.
	- Explaining why he would not be attending a function at a
	  club whose members were hostile to him Attrib.

Thirty-five is a very attractive age. London society is full of women
of the very highest birth who have, of their own free choice, remained
thirty-five for years.
	- The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) act 3

All that I desire to point out is the general principle that Life
imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life.
	- Intentions (1891) The Decay of Lying'

Experience is the name every one gives to their mistakes.
	- Lady Windermere's Fan (1892) act 3

The nineteenth century dislike of Realism is the rage of Caliban
seeing his own face in the glass.
	- The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) preface

A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.
	- The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) ch. 1

It is better to be beautiful than to be good. But...it is better to be
good than to be ugly.
	- The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) ch. 17

Chaos, illumined by flashes of lightning.
	- On Robert Browning's style', in Ada Leverson Letters to the
	  Sphinx (1930) pt. 1 The Importance of Being Oscar'

--

The thief is the artist and the policeman is only a critic.

The history of woman is the history of the worst form of tyranny the
world has ever known: the tyranny of the weak over the strong. It is
the only tyranny that lasts.

CONTENTS

Plays p.1

Lady Windermere's Fan
A Woman of No Importance
An Ideal Husband
The Importance of Being Earnest
Salome
Vera, or the Nihilists
The Duchess of Padua
A Florentine Tragedy
La Sainte Courtisane

Stories p.329

The Canterville Ghost
The Sphinx without a Secret
The Model Millionaire
Lord Arthur Savile's Crime
The Picture of Dorian Gray

Fairy Tales p.507

The Young King
The Birthday of the Infanta
The Fisherman and his Soul
The Star-Child
The Happy Prince
The Nightingale and the Rose
The Selfish Giant
The Devoted Friend
The Remarkable Rocket

Poems p.591


Ravenna
Helas!
Sonnet to Liberty
Ave Imperatrix
To Milton
Louis Napoleon
Sonnet on the Massacre of the Christians in Bulgaria
Quantum Mutata
Libertatis Sacra Fames

Theoretikos
The Garden of Eros
Requiescat
Sonnet on Approaching Italy
San Miniato
Ave Maria Gratia Plena
Italia
Sonnet Written in Holy Week at Genoa
Rome Unvisited
Urbs Sacra Aeterna
Sonnet on Hearing the Dies Irae Sung in the Sistine Chapel
Easter Day
E Tenebris
Vita Nuova
Madonna Mia
The New Helen
The Burden of Itys
Impression du Matin
Magdalen Walks
Athanasia
Serenade
Endymion
La Bella Donna della mia Mente
Chanson
Charmides

The Grave of Keats
Theocritus: A Villanelle
In the Gold Room: A Harmony
Ballade de Marguerite
The Dole of the King's Daughter
Amor Intellectualis
Santa Decca
A Vision
Impression de Voyage
The Grave of Shelley
By the Arno
Fabien dei Franchi
Phedre
Portia
Queen Henrietta Maria
Camma
Panthea
Impression: Le Reveillon
At Verona
Apologia
Quia Multum Amavi
Silentium Amoris
Her Voice
My Voice
Taedium Vitae
Humanitad
ΓΛϒΠIKPOΣ EPΩΣ (Flower of Love)
From Spring Days to Winter
'AiΛinon, 'AiΛinon 'Eiiie, to Δ'Eu NikatΩ (Tristitiae, A lament)

The True Knowledge
Lotus Leaves
Wasted Days
Impressions (Le Jardin, La Mer)
Under the Balcony
The Harlot's House

Le Jardin des Tuileries
On the Sale by Auction of Keats' Love Letters
The New Remorse
Fantaisies Decoratives
Canzonet
Symphony in Yellow
In the Forest
To My Wife (with a copy of my poems)
With a Copy of `A House of Pomegranates'
To L. L. (also titled `Roses and Rue')
Desespoir
Pan
Chorus of Cloud Maidens
ΘPHNΩΔIA (A Song of Lamentation)
A Fragment from the Agamemnon of Aeschylos
The Artist's Dream or San Artysty
The Sphinx

The Ballad of Reading Gaol


Poems in Prose p.745

The artist
The doer of good
The disciple
The master
The House of judgment
The teacher of wisdom

De Profundis and essays p.755

De Profundis
The decay of lying 825
Pen, pencil and poison
The critic as Artist
The truth of masks
The soul of man under socialism
The portrait of Mr. W. H.

Missing?:
? A House of Pomegranates [story]
? Impressions (Les Silhouettes, La Fuite de la Lune) [poem]


amitabha mukerjee (mukerjee [at] gmail.com) 17 Feb 2009