Author
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born on the 16th October 1854 and died on the 30th November 1900. He was an Irish playwright, poet, and author of numerous short stories and one novel. Known for his biting wit, he became one of the most successful playwrights of the late Victorian era in London, and one of the greatest celebrities of his day. Several of his plays continue to be widely performed, especially The Importance of Being Earnest.
Read more from Oscar Wilde
The Picture Of Dorian Gray Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/550 Great Love Letters You Have To Read (Golden Deer Classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A House of Pomegranates Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Comedies: Lady Windermere's Fan, An Ideal Husband, A Woman of No Importance, and The Importance of Being Earnest Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Complete Works Of Oscar Wilde Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Picture of Dorian Gray Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5De Profundis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Greatest Christmas Stories of All Time: Timeless Classics That Celebrate the Season Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPoems Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Importance of Being Earnest: A Play Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Gothic Classics: 60+ Books in One Volume Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Picture of Dorian Gray Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/550 Beautiful Christmas Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlood, Sperm, Black Velvet: The Seminal Book Of English Decadence (1888-1908) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsComplete Works of Oscar Wilde Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Oscar Wilde: A Life in Letters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Own Dear Darling Boy: The Letters of Oscar Wilde to Lord Alfred Douglas Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Complete Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Penny Dreadfuls MEGAPACK ®: 10 Classic Shockers! Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to Intentions
Related ebooks
WTF Just Happened?: How to Make Better Decisions by Asking Yourself Better Questions Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPerceptions, Passions, and Paradoxes: A Poetry Collection Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFolded Wisdom: Notes from Dad on Life, Love, and Growing Up Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStages of a Woman: A Self-Healing Poetry Workbook Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSoulphoria: A Provocative and Practical Approach to Spirituality Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAn Evolving Life: The Evolution of Life Through Poetry and Prose Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhen Art Touches Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Melody Lies In Between Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGood Morning & Goodnight Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA River of Poems: Poems By Jessica, #1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Zodiac Signs: Aries Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTaurus 2024: Zodiac world, #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFor Love: 25 Heartwarming Celebrations of Humanity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nineteen: 19 Insights Learned from a 19-year-old with Cancer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings36 Exposures: Poems for life, love, people, and places Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYour Complete Partner Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMythology in the Zodiac Signs: Taurus: Mythology in the Zodiac Signs, #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Tattooed Heart Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHi My Name Is Lisa and I Am an Addict Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWords from The Heart: A collection of poetry and prose, and inspirational quotes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInner Personalities: So many voices inside you. Who are you, really? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOnly My Thoughts for Company: A Book of Poetry and Prose Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsExcerpts of a Mental Illness Life: my private journal entries on struggling with a disease Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRepressed Feelings Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBest Damn Life Workbook: Create Your Own Personally Fulfilling Life Path Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAs I Remember in Poetry and Prose Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAnything Goes When Among Poems, Plays and Essays: Emotional Outcomes Remain the Best of Life’s Games Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDeath: A Love Letter Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Pocket Book of Quotes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThieves in the Afterlife Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for Intentions
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
5/5
1 rating1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This collection of dialogues and essays demonstrates Oscar Wilde's aesthetic, but also his vast knowledge of the classics, Shakespeare, and other great things in nineteenth-century Anglo art, literature, architecture, and theatre. Three pages into The Decay of Lying and one has been exposed to Aristotle, William Morris, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. He uses a from of the "iceberg" principle (later perfected by Hemingway) that demonstrates his knowledge without appearing to be name dropping. It is one thing to mention Aristotle, Morris, and Emerson as part of Vivian's critique of nature; quite another to append one's own aesthetic to the name dropping that leaves no doubt as to the author's learning. For instance, William Morris once said:Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.Wilde, in discussing nature versus art, mentions Aristotle (p. 3):Nature has good intentions, of course, but as Aristotle once said, she cannot carry them out.Vivian is discussing his preference for the indoors, and says (p. 4):Why, even Morris' poorest workman could make you a more comfortable seat then the whole of Nature can... If Nature had been comfortable, mankind would never have invented architecture, and I prefer houses to open air.This first part of the introduction is then neatly wrapped up with reference to Vivian (p. 5) writing the word "Whim" over the door of his library, echoing Emerson doing similar in his famous essay Self-Reliance. What does this all mean? It sets out several themes that thread through these five dialogues and essays. First is the interaction of art and nature in the human spirit. Second is contradiction. Vivian doesn't want to go outside, until he does. Vivian thinks writing is a waste of effort. But he is writing an article. In the final paragraph of the collection, Wilde writes:Not that I agree with everything I have said in this essay. There is much with which I entirely disagree. The essay simply represents an artistic standpoint, and in aesthetic criticism, attitude is everything. For in art there is no such thing as a universal truth. A Truth in art is that whose contradictory is also true.Third is the rhythm of life and the pursuit of human excellence. Wilde's characters in the dialogues go from contradictory point to contradictory point. In the essays we learn how ill-discipline and ignoring our intuition can lead to trouble (for instance, the poisoner leaves his ground-floor curtain open and is instantly recognised from the street); how Shakespeare used architecture and costume to make a point (as opposed to the theatrical archaeologists who point out Shakespeare's character's anachronistic raiment); how one moment we are focused, the next bored, even depressed, but we can be humorous, witty, intelligent, and dull. The dialogues read like a moment of intense thought that begins out of boredom and ends in boredom with thought. An indoor conversation is the scene of energy, but after talking "long enough", the outdoors beckons:Egotism itself, which is so necessary to a proper sense of human dignity, is entirely the result of indoor life.It is unsurprising that Oscar Wilde is so well read and witty. After all, he was a graduate of Oxford at a time when only the elite or those with elite patronage could dream of studying there. Yet there is an intense use of Plato's form of dialogue, an interesting blend of self-reliance and pompousness, intensity appearing indoors (even within Shakespeare's Globe Theatre), and the outdoors being a place of leisure (for the well-to-do, at least!). Yet the point of contradiction is not to be dishonest, but, through art, to bring to Nature the human experience:The final revelation is that Lying, the telling of beautiful untrue things, is the proper aim of Art.I recall in high school, when studying English literature, the teacher would ask: "What does the author mean by this or that?" to which I would say, "How should I know? And how do you know if you didn't ask them?" Logical to an egotistical teenager, to be sure, but hardly intelligent. And now? It would take several re-readings of these dialogues and essays and some intense study into Wilde's life at the point in time of writing these works to discover more. Yet, armed with the knowledge of reading given to me by Harold Bloom, Mortimer Adler, Italo Calvino, and Theodore Roosevelt (to name but a few), I think I can safely tell my teenage self that, contradictory to what I thought then, one can interpret and learn from the writings of others, even if the lessons learnt were never intended. And if Art cannot deliver such lessons, what other medium can?
Book preview
Intentions - Oscar Wilde
1^ book_preview_excerpt.html \mȑ
ƞےZR+aYdVUNLR/?vs&>ɾIf$k`*2/^>1McS}TS:n>Տl
/&
^|f?z`}u(ƛ*9~Wqӝ|j1UnU}p>ʵmoXM1msz4):_w6V}>.Չ3Oz|&6%oOlux
ܐkqez0 ?q}_DgBWoZg^q;lKDsXTM&Lic0t5)3Fܠ{VAc͏{؞;9B|@hӭsz6NShSثn7>B7qr'aJ?SGcPiyGNUh՜