Oscar Wilde

Loved this New Yorker article by Alex Ross on Oscar Wilde and thought I'd share here:

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2011/08/08/110808crat_atlarge_ross"

Thanks for the recommendation. Read the article and it was excellent. Great insight into Oscar Wilde by Ross.

Glad you liked it. After reading the article I finally read the novel. Pretty amazing book, I think.

From a review by Gore Vidal of a biography on Wilde. Kind of silly but this made me smile:

"The young Proust was impressive to Wilde because of his 'enthusiasm for English literature, especially for Ruskin (whom he translated) and George Eliot...' But when Proust invited him to dinner, Wilde arrived before Proust: 'I looked at the drawing room and a the end of it were your parents, my courage failed me.' Wilde departed, after the thoughtful observation to M. and Mme. Proust: 'How ugly your house is.' "

Thanks from me too for the reference to this article.
It got me listing some of the Wilde books in my library on this site.

Good to hear that. Alex Ross is pretty great.

The new Harvard edition of Dorian Gray that Ross references in that article is really terrific.

>7 bgsfca:

So I hear, yes. I will have to check it out in the future.

Can you give a reference? Would love to read this review by Vidal.

It is from a review of Richard Ellman's biography of Oscar Wilde that Gore Vidal wrote in 1987 for The Times Literary Supplement. I found that quote in United States: Essays 1952-1992.The essay is called "Oscar Wilde: On the Skids Again".

Thanks much