Oscar Wilde Summary
William Kotzwinkle

Biography Essay] Together with George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde transformed British drama in the late nineteenth century by expressing a new, "modern" sensibility. By the mid nineteenth century, the B... Read more

"Famous for his public speaking and wit, [Oscar] Wilde has often been accused of merely reproducing witty repartee in his plays, and the temptation to treat his work lightly is in large part due to hi... Read more

Few writers have managed to remain world famous without the support of the schools. Oscar Wilde is one of them. Not generally regarded by academics as major or important, Wilde's work has figured ve... Read more

Oscar Wilde as man and artist is a study of extremes and contradictions. He approached life empirically, as Walter Pater had taught him at Oxford, but the pupil determined to pursue sensation beyond ... Read more

Oscar Wilde 's literary reputation rests primarily on his later plays and his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891). Although he published only fourteen short stories and six prose poems, a me... Read more

While working on a carefully guarded film project in 1982, Steven Spielberg invited the versatile writer William Kotzwinkle to Hollywood. Spielberg had read and enjoyed Kotzwinkle's vivid evocation of... Read more

In the following essay, Gladden analyzes Oscar Wilde's journal, written under the pseudonym Sebastian Melmoth, in terms of his thoughts about being exiled from England after serving his prison ... Read more

In the following essay, Saunders considers Salomé as “essentially Greek in character” and “one of the greatest tragedies of recent times.” About twenty years ago, af... Read more

In the following essay, Stokes surveys the critical reaction to three productions of Wilde's plays in the 1990s, finding insight into the theatrical scene of the 1890s. We live in an age of int... Read more

Oscar Wilde is a man of mystery and intrigue. He is an idealist, perhaps. Or could he be a cynic? On the surface, he may be, but through his book The Picture of Dorian Gray one can see that he is a mo... Read more