Product details
Binding: Paperback
224 pages
Publisher: Wordsworth
Language: English
Level: Advance
Full text
Package Dimensions: 5 x 0.8 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounce
With an Introduction and Notes by John M.L. Drew, University of Buckingham
Wilde's only novel, first published in 1890, is a brilliantly designed puzzle, intended to tease conventional minds with its exploration of the myriad interrelationships between art, life, and consequence. From its provocative Preface, challenging the reader to believe in 'art for art's sake', to its sensational conclusion, the story self-consciously experiments with the notion of sin as an element of design
Yet Wilde himself underestimated the consequences of his experiment, and its capacity to outrage the Victorian establishment. Its words returned to haunt him in his court appearances in 1895, and he later recalled the 'note of doom' which runs like 'a purple thread' through its carefully crafted prose