Vera Or, The Nihilists cover

Vera Or, The Nihilists

Rating 3.1
Word count
108K words
Chapters
11

Tags

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.Vera; Or, The Nihilists by Oscar WildeAuthor: Wilde, Oscar, 1854-1900,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Aug 30, 2008

Editor's review

This is a public-domain electronic text of Wilde's early play Vera; or, The Nihilists, valuable for understanding the starting point of this representative aesthete's dramatic writing. Set against the Russian nihilist movement, the plot revolves around revolution, love, and power, with the tension of melodrama and a young Wilde's political imagination. It differs from his later social comedies known for witty dialogue, making it useful material for comparative reading. Released by Project Gutenberg as an English original, it is easily accessible and suitable as supplementary material for studying Wilde's creative genealogy or nineteenth-century political drama. Readers need not judge it by the standard of a mature masterpiece; better to focus on the early tendencies revealed in its choice of subject, character arrangement, and language style. For general readers familiar only with The Picture of Dorian Gray or The Importance of Being Earnest, this book offers an unfamiliar and interesting side of the author.

Who it's for

A good fit for

  • Literature students and enthusiasts studying Wilde's creative development
  • Readers interested in nineteenth-century European political drama
  • Advanced English readers seeking to broaden their horizons through English originals
  • Libraries and e-book readers collecting public-domain dramatic texts

Not a good fit for

  • General readers expecting Wilde's witty comic dialogue
  • Beginners with limited English reading ability who need a Chinese translation
  • Readers lacking background knowledge of Russian revolutionary history and unwilling to look it up

Reading tips

  1. First learn the basic background of the nineteenth-century Russian Narodnik and nihilist movements, then enter the plot.
  2. Read it alongside Wilde's later social comedies to observe the shift in his dramatic tastes.
  3. Read primarily the English original, consulting notes or encyclopedias for historical terms as needed.
  4. Treat the play as research material rather than light reading, noting character relationships and political stances as you go.

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.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11

FAQ

Is this book one of Wilde's representative works?
No. This is an earlier play by Wilde, less well known and less artistically mature than his social comedies and novels. It is better suited as research material for understanding the starting point of his career than as an introductory first choice.
What language proficiency is needed to read this book?
This is an English original released by Project Gutenberg. Intermediate or higher English reading ability is recommended, along with the ability to use a dictionary or notes to understand nineteenth-century political vocabulary. Chinese readers may also consult relevant translations for support.
What are the features of the Project Gutenberg edition?
Project Gutenberg provides free electronic texts. This edition is a public-domain English original, convenient for searching and citation, and suitable for researchers and e-book readers, but it typically does not include a modern scholarly introduction or detailed notes.

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About the author

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) was an Irish writer known for his plays, fiction, fairy tales and epigrams. The collection here contains 55 of his works, including the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray (also appearing as Das Bildnis des Dorian Gray, Le portrait de Dorian Gray and Dorian Grayn muotokuva) and the fairy-tale collection The Happy Prince, and Other Tales. The Picture of Dorian Gray centres on a portrait and its subject's fate, exploring beauty, youth, morality and indulgence through polished dialogue and an aesthetic style; The Happy Prince, and Other Tales uses fairy-tale form to portray sacrifice and compassion in clear, gently ironic prose. Wilde's writing is witty and ornate, marked by paradox and epigram, and his works have long circulated in many languages. Beyond his dates, public information is limited, so no biographical details are conjectured here.

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