Vera
By Oscar Wilde
()
About this ebook
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish author, playwright and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. He is remembered for his epigrams, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, his plays, as well as the circumstances of his imprisonment and early death.
At the height of his fame and success, while his masterpiece, The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), was still on stage in London, Wilde had the Marquess of Queensberry prosecuted for libel. The Marquess was the father of Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. The charge carried a penalty of up to two years in prison. The trial unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and trial for gross indecency with other men. After two more trials he was convicted and imprisoned for two years' hard labour. In 1897, in prison, he wrote De Profundis, which was published in 1905, a long letter which discusses his spiritual journey through his trials, forming a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure. Upon his release he left immediately for France, never to return to Ireland or Britain. There he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life. He died destitute in Paris at the age of 46.
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) was a Dublin-born poet and playwright who studied at the Portora Royal School, before attending Trinity College and Magdalen College, Oxford. The son of two writers, Wilde grew up in an intellectual environment. As a young man, his poetry appeared in various periodicals including Dublin University Magazine. In 1881, he published his first book Poems, an expansive collection of his earlier works. His only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, was released in 1890 followed by the acclaimed plays Lady Windermere’s Fan (1893) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895).
Read more from Oscar Wilde
The Picture of Dorian Gray Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Complete Works Of Oscar Wilde Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/550 Great Love Letters You Have To Read (Golden Deer Classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Picture Of Dorian Gray Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A House of Pomegranates Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Greatest Christmas Stories of All Time: Timeless Classics That Celebrate the Season Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe 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 ratings50 Beautiful Christmas Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Importance of Being Earnest: A Play Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5De Profundis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Complete Works of Oscar Wilde Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Poems Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Picture of Dorian Gray Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Blood, Sperm, Black Velvet: The Seminal Book Of English Decadence (1888-1908) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGothic Classics: 60+ Books in One Volume Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMy Own Dear Darling Boy: The Letters of Oscar Wilde to Lord Alfred Douglas Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOscar Wilde: A Life in Letters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Penny Dreadfuls MEGAPACK ®: 10 Classic Shockers! Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to Vera
Related ebooks
Vera: The Nihilists, a Drama in a Prologue and Four Acts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVera Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Plays of Oscar Wilde: 8 Classic Plays Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Life of Oscar Wilde Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Nihilists Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVera: or, The Nihilists Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Oscar Wilde Collection: 8 Plays, 16 Stories, 22 Poems, and 6 Essays Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: 150+ Works in One Volume Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Complete Works of Oscar Wilde (more than 150 Works) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Complete Plays: Salome + The Importance Of Being Earnest +A Woman Of No Importance + Lady Windermere's Fan and more Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Complete Works of Oscar Wilde Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOscar Wilde: Complete Works: Plays, Novel, Poetry, Short Stories, Fairy Tales, Philosophy, Articles, Letters & Biography Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDelphi Complete Works of Oscar Wilde (Illustrated) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beauty, Blissfulness and Tragedy: The Life of Oscar Wilde Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOscar Wilde: Complete Works: Novel, Plays, Short Stories, 125 Poems, 130+ Essays & Articles, Letters & A Biography Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOscar Wilde: Complete Plays: Vera, The Duchess of Padua, Lady Windermere's Fan, A Woman of No Importance, Salomé… Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: 150+ Titles in One Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOscar Wilde: The Complete Collection Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Plays of Oscar Wilde Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vera, or The Nihilists, A Florentine Tragedy—A Fragment, and La Sainte Courtisane Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVera: "Fool, nothing is impossible in Russia but reform." Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Complete Works Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Complete Oscar Wilde Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Performing Arts For You
Lucky Dog Lessons: From Renowned Expert Dog Trainer and Host of Lucky Dog: Reunions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mash: A Novel About Three Army Doctors Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Romeo and Juliet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Best Women's Monologues from New Plays, 2020 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hamlet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Quite Nice and Fairly Accurate Good Omens Script Book: The Script Book Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human and How to Tell Them Better Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Diamond Eye: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Yes Please Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Our Town: A Play in Three Acts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Whale / A Bright New Boise Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Is This Anything? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fifth Mountain: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Trial Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Robin Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes: Revised and Complete Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hollywood's Dark History: Silver Screen Scandals Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5For colored girls who have considered suicide/When the rainbow is enuf Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Coreyography: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Count Of Monte Cristo (Unabridged) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Strange Loop Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Othello Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Midsummer Night's Dream, with line numbers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Woman Is No Man: A Read with Jenna Pick Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Into the Woods: A Five-Act Journey Into Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Vera
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Vera - Oscar Wilde
ADDITIONS.
PERSONS IN THE PROLOGUE.
………………
………………
PETER SABOUROFF (an Innkeeper).
VERA SABOUROFF (his Daughter).
MICHAEL (a Peasant).
COLONEL KOTEMKIN.
Scene, Russia. Time, 1795.
………………
PERSONS IN THE PLAY.
………………
………………
IVAN THE CZAR.
PRINCE PAUL MARALOFFSKI (Prime Minister of Russia).
PRINCE PETROVITCH.
COUNT ROUVALOFF.
MARQUIS DE POIVRARD.
BARON RAFF.
GENERAL KOTEMKIN.
A PAGE.
………………
Nihilists.
PETER TCHERNAVITCH, President of the Nihilists.
MICHAEL.
ALEXIS IVANACIEVITCH, known as a Student of Medicine.
PROFESSOR MARFA.
VERA SABOUROFF.
Soldiers, Conspirators, &c.
Scene, Moscow. Time, 1800.
………………
PROLOGUE.
………………
………………
SCENE.—A Russian Inn.
Large door opening on snowy landscape at back of stage.
PETER SABOUROFF and MICHAEL.
PETER (warming his hands at a stove). Has Vera not come back yet,
Michael?
MICH. No, Father Peter, not yet; ‘tis a good three miles to the post
office, and she has to milk the cows besides, and that dun one is a rare
plaguey creature for a wench to handle.
PETER. Why didn’t you go with her, you young fool? she’ll never love you
unless you are always at her heels; women like to be bothered.
MICH. She says I bother her too much already, Father Peter, and I fear
she’ll never love me after all.
PETER. Tut, tut, boy, why shouldn’t she? you’re young and wouldn’t be
ill-favoured either, had God or thy mother given thee another face.
Aren’t you one of Prince Maraloffski’s gamekeepers; and haven’t you got
a good grass farm, and the best cow in the village? What more does a
girl want?
MICH. But Vera, Father Peter—
PETER. Vera, my lad, has got too many ideas; I don’t think much of ideas
myself; I’ve got on well enough in life without ‘em; why shouldn’t my
children? There’s Dmitri! could have stayed here and kept the inn; many
a young lad would have jumped at the offer in these hard times; but he,
scatter-brained featherhead of a boy, must needs go off to Moscow to
study the law! What does he want knowing about the law! let a man do his
duty, say I, and no one will trouble him.
MICH. Ay! but Father Peter, they say a good lawyer can break the law as
often as he likes, and no one can say him nay.
PETER. That is about all they are good for; and there he stays, and has
not written a line to us for four months now—a good son that, eh?
MICH. Come, come, Father Peter, Dmitri’s letters must have gone
astray—perhaps the new postman can’t read; he looks stupid enough, and
Dmitri, why, he was the best fellow in the village. Do you remember how
he shot the bear at the barn in the great winter?
PETER. Ay, it was a good shot; I never did a better myself.
MICH. And as for dancing, he tired out three fiddlers Christmas come two
years.
PETER. Ay, ay, he was a merry lad. It is the girl that has the
seriousness—she goes about as solemn as a priest for days at a time.
MICH. Vera is always thinking of others.
PETER. There is her mistake, boy. Let God and our Little Father look to
the world. It is none of my work to mend my neighbour’s thatch. Why,
last winter old Michael was frozen to death in his sleigh in the
snowstorm, and his wife and children starved afterwards when the hard
times came; but what business was it of mine? I didn’t make the world.
Let God and the Czar look to it. And then the blight came, and the black
plague with it, and the priests couldn’t bury the people fast enough,
and they lay dead on the roads—men and women both. But what business
was it of mine? I didn’t make the world. Let God and the Czar look to
it. Or two autumns ago, when the river overflowed on a sudden, and the
children’s school was carried away and drowned every girl and boy in it.
I didn’t make the world—let God and the Czar look to it.
MICH. But, Father Peter—
PETER. No, no, boy; no man could live if he took his neighbour’s pack
on his shoulders. (Enter VERA in peasant’s dress.) Well, my girl,
you’ve been long enough away—where is the letter?
VERA. There is none to-day, Father.
PETER. I knew it.
VERA. But there will be one to-morrow, Father.
PETER. Curse him, for an ungrateful son.
VERA. Oh, Father, don’t say that; he must be sick.
PETER. Ay! sick of profligacy, perhaps.
VERA. How dare you say that of him, Father? You know that is not true.
PETER. Where does the money go, then? Michael, listen. I gave Dmitri
half his mother’s fortune to bring with him to pay the lawyer folk of
Moscow. He has only written three times, and every time for more money.
He got it, not at my wish, but at hers (pointing to VERA), and now for
five months, close on six almost, we have heard nothing from him.
VERA. Father, he will come back.
PETER. Ay! the prodigals always return; but let him never darken my
doors again.
VERA (sitting down pensive). Some evil has come on him; he must be
dead! Oh! Michael, I am so wretched about Dmitri.
MICH. Will you never love any one but him, Vera?
VERA (smiling). I don’t know; there is so much else to do in the world
but love.
MICH. Nothing else worth doing, Vera.
PETER. What noise is that, Vera? (A metallic clink is heard.)
VERA (rising and going to the door). I don’t know, Father; it is not
like the cattle bells, or I would think Nicholas had come from the fair.
Oh! Father! it is soldiers!—coming down the hill—there is one of them
on horseback. How pretty they look! But there are some men with them
with chains on! They must be robbers. Oh! don’t let them in,