Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Intentions
    Intentions
    Intentions
    Ebook191 pages3 hours

    Intentions

    By Oscar Wilde

    4/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Originally published in 1891 when Wilde was at the height of his form, these brilliant essays on art, literature, criticism, and society display the flamboyant poseur's famous wit and wide learning. A leading spokesman for the English Aesthetic movement, Wilde promoted "art for art's sake" against critics who argued that art must serve a moral purpose. On every page of this collection the gifted literary stylist admirably demonstrates not only that the characteristics of art are "distinction, charm, beauty, and imaginative power," but also that criticism itself can be raised to an art form possessing these very qualities. In the opening essay, Wilde laments the "decay of Lying as an art, a science, and a social pleasure." He takes to task modern literary realists like Henry James and Emile Zola for their "monstrous worship of facts" and stifling of the imagination. What makes art wonderful, he says, is that it is "absolutely indifferent to fact, [art] invents, imagines, dreams, and keeps between herself and reality the impenetrable barrier of beautiful style, of decorative or ideal treatment." The next essay, "Pen, Pencil, and Poison," is a fascinating literary appreciation of the life of Thomas Griffiths Wainewright, a talented painter, art critic, antiquarian, friend of Charles Lamb, and — murderer. The heart of the collection is the long two-part essay titled "The Critic as Artist." In one memorable passage after another, Wilde goes to great lengths to show that the critic is every bit as much an artist as the artist himself, in some cases more so. A good critic is like a virtuoso interpreter: "When Rubinstein plays ... he gives us not merely Beethoven, but also himself, and so gives us Beethoven absolutely...made vivid and wonderful to us by a new and intense personality. When a great actor plays Shakespeare we have the same experience." Finally, in "The Truth of Masks," Wilde returns to the theme of art as artifice and creative deception. This essay focuses on the use of masks, disguises, and costume in Shakespeare. For newcomers to Wilde and those who already know his famous plays and fiction, this superb collection of his criticism offers many delights.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherStart Classics
    Release dateMay 30, 2014
    ISBN9781633551909
    Intentions
    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

    Related to Intentions

    Related ebooks

    Literary Criticism For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Art of Fiction No. 243

      Dec 15, 2018

      The Art of Fiction No. 243
      24 min read

    • Article

      How to Stop Crying

      Nov 7, 2019

      How to Stop Crying
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Spiritual Materialist

      Mar 30, 2023

      The Spiritual Materialist
      11 min read

    • Article

      Tomorrows

      Mar 15, 2022

      The night, as most nights, was like a dream. At ten, once I’d fed the dog the last scraps off the stove. Once I’d cursed the cat for scratching up my mama’s antique furniture, then welcomed him back into my arms. Once I’d slicked my hair into a ponyt

      26 min read

    • Article

      Character, Know Thyself: The Essentials Of Character Awareness

      May 8, 2019

      Early drafts are an exercise in getting to know your character and her story—you are, in essence, telling the story to yourself first so that you can figure out what to add or omit when fine-tuning the story for readers. I encourage you to pen more p

      8 min read

    • Article

      The Year Ahead

      Nov 13, 2021

      The Year Ahead
      2 min read

    • Article

      How Instagram Saved Poetry

      Oct 15, 2018

      How Instagram Saved Poetry
      6 min read

    • Article

      Postmodernism—for Kids

      Oct 23, 2014

      Postmodernism—for Kids
      4 min read

    • Article

      Nick Laird

      Dec 15, 2017

      I was trying to write like an adult.I had children.I was at the end of something. As I waited at my table by the window for the coffee,I saw that the sirocco had depositeda scrim of dust on the sill overnight,and it was the dark red of powdered blood

      3 min read

    • Article

      Thinking On Inking

      Nov 25, 2021

      IN THE EARLY 1960S, on Sundays at Speakers’ Corner, there was a man who would take off his shirt and reveal that every inch of his torso was covered in tattoos. He said not a word but had a knowing smile or smirk upon his face; the assembled audience

      2 min read

    • Article

      Six Poems

      Feb 28, 2023

      Dear C, At first Virgil’s poem is quite dull; equivocalnames of products at The Container Store: Elfa White Medium Drawer, Mesh NarrowRolling Cart (Medium Solution), Narrow Classic Mesh Box and the number of pirouetting starseach product attained. An

      5 min read

    • Article

      Spell

      Apr 25, 2018

      Spell
      4 min read

    • Article

      A Symposium on Invisibility

      Sep 1, 2022

      A Symposium on Invisibility
      26 min read

    • Article

      Spellcheck

      Jan 1, 2019

      Whose history I do not know. I do know I’ve been e-upbraided for my fast and loose spelling of Woden, the god whose last worshipper must have slipped under the sod during the medieval period, somewhere in the 10th century—imagine those bog-soaked des

      5 min read

    • Article

      What’s the Point?

      Sep 23, 2019

      What’s the Point?
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Trouble Gene

      Jul 1, 2020

      One clear thing about trouble—it can set you back to zero, a personal cone of silence. And reading, writing, listening allow entry into that troubled solitude; you disappear into it regardless t of the time or place you really are in, be it bed, kitc

      12 min read

    • Article

      Oh, Corona

      Jan 1, 2024

      Books The Lights by Ben Lerner Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023 128 pp., $26.00 (hardcover) According to the latest Times article on the qualitative merits of bot art, Ben Lerner has lent excerpts from his new poetry collection to a group of venture c

      7 min read

    • Article

      Commonplace Corner

      Jul 26, 2023

      So little, England. Little music. Little art. Timid, tasteful, nice. But one loves it. Loves it. You see I can say I love London. I can say I love England. I can’t say I love my country. I don’t know what that means. The Guy Burgess character in Alan

      1 min read

    • Article

      The Inventions of Witches

      Oct 30, 2017

      The Inventions of Witches
      7 min read

    • Article

      Refuge

      May 2, 2017

      Refuge
      7 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Intentions

    4/5

    2 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      This 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

    .abook_preview_excerpt.html[Mƒ+iFpf;dB5&M~3AƱ{xUYYY×7^zGyOr}q^4?ݿxz}|ScyuR߄k~K)w6f>mNa:7yׄ8C^Jlؼ! 否xW|aGcS|jvS)?w禋al.73^9/SYM g{xlz[]s?7`8b;Ϗ ;cBxa%4G}:EyHeK=sW6xCe:Ux] wۈJ2gY{~ 2dṫ͜0CxxΌcО} gwa47Cx* i}Wb.k)i[Lv`ûoʼtWyʳ{?J7g'186A%NaN8Lzccm46'\&H1`_9R;,JKWviKs>SSFӐS9V`G mVqi k^Ls8g&_`şk^ #՞ '|C|'A]j sMqTX\_K[C]еuMW6pb<{= 3c C8b'D6$)10n Ҭ~G.`>vxc#4- te~G0 gtf&ijGZ\3!D;֌,?v갔\sxU2G;E$TAJo5@v)E~AQiyZX4ra !nCXFJ&!jˑM;̱!. +@}3A2)7 +IIO+g uѩTc4S!v;n%-ЊLBY +x-+A=KrZ 'w94v@Bˣ  AL{#2L`K!>nBe`"`yb T=g:VҜ-,6yZP:LjEa6%&|a_okwcrW o599`f/F<椮?6y>|yˎQ~ŝ%LḁXzKbxÐG)?] 1Fp47-/[dX'Xqhi%{BWz3T~l\XXK )+;;H , zr(X\;4_Hx[~/J (C*uxJrlH}c>/eNnd8)yܵ[옡B~Z| "G_Z`Y)fȕ>A5 ~뗬A Rs%vs[T&dqѵ&8 .dk덙kAXNg>Kups&⢹u)`P\72?$mW"8zuVc,JfĀIkV :hXNyJ?3N*MҗH5D{"[&[,/V^ ً$AVbH yT䨂By o^_Oe^ ֯ ns֮Jڬf0T-B_?G _?MJG 5wr{]*~L5 nJýO(La` d@\ c{8nMaZ+M<=vytD#<:%bZq7xLvp.|G,cV_:ҘyYe]5=@>Jky!=ac*S Ș01p,,Ú9pΣw\;( =PwHR]8YE$LHZ:ojT tReL. ~57ʓij& K#C"%g%X @9Пz9rNj@"9`BIA:>ƿ~݈$o\&rH:|\Ӑ'Dze%Nk\X|]UpiJFsdʹ_ah &wW@u>hQhϷ_wu2eO<0_hӓ!u*4窱5 \#Dyi`S޷UAtky(sDATjhf<-C:V"ȆO wưxQd+b\^kLSF \<!+\UC(^VIk3{hQa*kg ݆hxJd^Yeߤju3x8ٰͭ9[Ӛ w$&+B)a$.:BqxdϝLLU9\e/DX.D 5>EV4ʛCRruRyAǜ[bYtqsX?KT"զ]O@ fLxuh[pVJetU~U7 cVdG5.Nn99z5]=%i}=6Js3/eIw28£~ zǕ>&nU&9%ev`>1N2J2=\xIȺ(,)QfLVC`%e>+1ҬfF\jGD!yo H!+,j9 o-QW>fXYh7JL1!9/;o2z̴Yp]d }70A%>HY YЄ81fB`S0Rn2$õ{DwI_s1Z 2m[0:cws AG!1’"Bk_ j*b7i>bpMbOg<6{Dl· ?up"'er 'ՎNdW"M%McCOiԶ’4kpA7Ƒ;ݶ:cT2!j uB,[vq3 JV}gXu:9UY22mv)z\CTDCg4TjG'vXm[c,m36FW_˘}ȷWR@bqw'2x];В*9֐ȁq9oEXG>G(9iZF4ۍMF?JεbjTizHm $4Kֺa5ofCcbs|^،LuL*)myJ0nʖgӹ f"lHxw^F+"x5-_F (˛/QL8T=k+jmrZfEjl꾊gy?/⡅ӅޏF}N/I.r 0+6aY͸..J_:ppU$DpG$Lև>aG3 ^'Mb{7 0'diꔒk'L%w,"')A~Rz$;6+.i҇P-$h&!aow\%>t5ZfV DP^|= |Ϟ$y\p-Y,+/p!¼WxAqj73 w7e?@GL֡/ƾDhMB M&QP-"|-„ G?S^7hMCV"Ql|DڦտJJZ@b=/\߳Ʀw=كϥ3]g׎w%hײCǁ [j$eU-txp)eKhgÅZ%_U@-zWſw~.-*-q;Y ADdE)90=JPco_xNeVW wb@^)7-BIeeKBt!?2:GØ z*h(6-H(d1&$tOeWL"9QʁK"r~L/9ŵQ}“6Um2Qv9 엲$涭,}s5I4]t) U/k~!ј 荲R=c[ΤNJӄRmOG#y(}φ0^ҋ68uC4݇ jK6x!]aZ_)\ŷ~=FA\oyr?M^( Ϟ`Ǒ U-OBHRlV=~ %Ү.e8k$:l?GK?HTD,nj{iFt&ڕ këoG{fH 浱OG# ǩ쭌p_q6ۻ2<.v=l5(QKx3PW7cR'Zz Uz㒗BXsrw˻5+V1€ѹmU-_ͱA5VR)dezC6 -AU"^~I`]}ПOpCEH?@YrEyU_*^QX+]8ʐ sX kil#M}GvK(;k :ԃqwq˘aA QG!gvwDRxg9vDpǛ0yY;.Oaue OŽ_mUE=-iw}ҟ}[tIJ?M⾕2(4FWߣa*xtSj8SI6HA|܏Ow٨S~Hj 򼒅@*2NtOeꛬLQDI@ԖgqʹNhHDD[?do.޾9}l'7T2ف\qCsW~yPµK{$|w|Չ:.d?7c*#hWaevn 7!TA
    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1