Oscar Wilde

Ingleby, Leonard Cresswell, 1876-1923Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

Word count: 515K words
Chapters: 52

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Oscar Wilde by Leonard Cresswell InglebyAuthor: Ingleby, Leonard Cresswell, 1876-1923,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Dec 9, 2011

Editor's review

This book is a biography of Oscar Wilde by the English writer Leonard Cresswell Ingleby, one of the early systematic accounts of Wilde's life and work. Its value lies in tracing Wilde's literary career, social activities, and personal fate from the perspective of a contemporary, offering readers a period-marked piece of corroborating material for understanding the late-19th-century English Aesthetic movement. The quotations from Wilde's works and remarks can help readers distinguish the writer himself from the later mythologized image. It should be noted that the author's prose carries the tastes and standards of judgment of late-Victorian biography, and some views may not seem fair today; readers should read with a critical eye. This is an English public-domain e-book, suitable as supplementary reading for Wilde studies rather than a first choice for beginners; it works better when read alongside Wilde's own works and more recent biographies.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literature lovers who already have a preliminary understanding of Oscar Wilde's life and work
Readers studying late-19th-century English Aestheticism and literary-social history
Researchers who wish to consult early Wilde biographies and make textual comparisons
Advanced students accustomed to reading English originals and willing to assess the stance of historical sources

Not a good fit for

Readers with no exposure to Wilde's works who need an accessible introduction
Readers who want only a quick summary of Wilde's life and do not wish to read English originals
Biography readers expecting contemporary academic standards and rigorous annotation

Reading tips

Read Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray or a few of his comedies before starting this biography.
Note the author's language of praise and blame as you read, distinguishing factual narrative from personal judgment.
Read alongside later Wilde biographies and note differences in how the same events are narrated.
The English original can be read closely in sections, revisiting Wilde's works from the corresponding period after each chapter.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book an autobiography by Wilde?

No. The author is Leonard Cresswell Ingleby; it is a biography of Wilde by another hand, and both narrative and evaluation come from the biographer, carrying his era's perspective.

Is this book suitable as an introduction to Wilde?

Not very. It is an old English public-domain work, and its prose and standards of judgment belong to an earlier biographical tradition. It is better to read Wilde's representative works or a more recent Chinese biography first and use this book as a supplement.

What level of English is needed to read this book?

The text is English biographical writing from the late 19th to early 20th century, with long sentences and fairly formal vocabulary. It suits readers with university-level English reading ability who are willing to look up words.

Comments

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About the author

Ingleby, Leonard Cresswell, 1876-1923 Author · 1876–1923

Leonard Cresswell Ingleby (1876–1923) was a British writer and literary critic active in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His name and dates are recorded in bibliographic sources, while further details of his life are limited in publicly available material. One representative work associated with him is Oscar Wilde, a critical biography that recounts and assesses Wilde's life and writings. Works of this kind generally follow the subject's life chronologically while combining analysis of individual works with attention to the literary and historical context, adopting an evaluative rather than purely documentary tone. Since only a single title by Ingleby is held in this collection, it is difficult to judge his overall style or standing; the book may nonetheless be consulted as an early study of Wilde, offering a view of how contemporary critics received and evaluated him.