A Critic in Pall Mall

by Oscar Wilde

Overview

"A Critic in Pall Mall" is not a work by Oscar Wilde. Instead, it is a collection of essays and reviews written by Oscar Wilde that was published in 1885 under the title "The Critic As Artist." This collection includes two dialogues: "The Critic As Artist: With Some Remarks on the Importance of Doing Nothing" and "The Decay of Lying: An Observation." In "The Critic As Artist," Wilde explores the role of the critic and the artist in society, arguing that the critic plays an essential role in shaping public opinion about art. He discusses the importance of individualism, aesthetics, and the idea that the critic's subjective response to art is as valuable as objective analysis. In "The Decay of Lying," Wilde satirically examines the relationship between art and reality. He argues that life imitates art far more than art imitates life, advocating for the value of artistic expression and imagination over strict adherence to reality. Both essays are known for their wit, humor, and paradoxical statements, which are characteristic of Wilde's writing style. These essays are considered significant contributions to the fields of literary criticism and aesthetics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781477458099
Publisher:	CreateSpace Publishing
Publication date:	05/13/2012
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.57(d)

About the Author

A Critic in Pall MallBy Oscar WildeAs one enters Rome from the Via Ostiensis by the Porta San Paolo, the first object that meets the eye is a marble pyramid which stands close at hand on the left. There are many Egyptian obelisks in Rome-tall, snakelike spires of red sandstone, mottled with strange writings, which remind us of the pillars of flame which led the children of Israel through the desert away from the land of the Pharaohs but more wonderful than these to look upon is this gaunt, wedge-shaped pyramid standing here in this Italian city, unshattered amid the ruins and wrecks of time, looking older than the Eternal City itself, like terrible impassiveness turned to stone. And so in the Middle Ages men supposed this to be the sepulchre of Remus, who was slain by his own brother at the founding of the city, so ancient and mysterious it appears but we have now, perhaps unfortunately, more accurate information about it, and know that it is the tomb of one Caius Cestius, a Roman gentleman of small note, who died about 30 b.c. Yet though we cannot care much for the dead man who lies in lonely state beneath it, and who is only known to the world through his sepulchre, still this pyramid will be ever dear to the eyes of all English-speaking people, because at evening its shadows fall on the tomb of one who walks with Spenser, and Shakespeare, and Byron, and Shelley, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning in the great procession of the sweet singers of England. And the name of the young English poet is John Keats. Lord Houghton calls this cemetery 'one of the most beautiful spots on which the eye and heart of man can rest,' and Shelley speaks of it as making one 'in love with death, to think that one should be buried in so sweet a place' and indeed when I saw the violets and the daisies and the poppies that overgrow the tomb, I remembered how the dead poet had once told his friend that he thought the 'intensest pleasure he had received in life was in watching the growth of flowers,' and how another time, after lying a while quite still, he murmured in some strange prescience of early death, 'I feel the flowers growing over me.'

Date of Birth:

October 16, 1854

Date of Death:

November 30, 1900

Place of Birth:

Dublin, Ireland

Place of Death:

Paris, France

Education:

The Royal School in Enniskillen, Dublin, 1864; Trinity College, Dublin, 1871; Magdalen College, Oxford, England, 1874

Table of Contents

THE TOMB OF KEATS KEATS'S SONNET ON BLUE DINNERS AND DISHES SHAKESPEARE ON SCENERY 'HENRY THE FOURTH' AT OXFORD A HANDBOOK TO MARRIAGE TO READ OR NOT TO READ THE LETTERS OF A GREAT WOMAN BERANGER IN ENGLAND THE POETRY OF THE PEOPLE 'THE CENCI' BALZAC IN ENGLISH BEN JONSON MR. SYMONDS' HISTORY MR. MORRIS'S 'ODYSSEY' RUSSIAN NOVELISTS 48 MR. PATER'S 'IMAGINARY PORTRAITS' A GERMAN PRINCESS 'A VILLAGE TRAGEDY' MR. MORRIS'S COMPLETION OF THE 'ODYSSEY' MRS. SOMERVILLE ARISTOTLE AT AFTERNOON TEA EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND MADAME RISTORI ENGLISH POETESSES VENUS OR VICTORY M. CARO ON GEORGE SAND A FASCINATING BOOK HENLEY'S POEMS SOME LITERARY LADIES POETRY AND PRISON THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO WALT WHITMAN IRISH FAIRY TALES MR. W. B. YEATS MR. YEATS'S 'WANDERINGS OF OISIN' MR. WILLIAM MORRIS'S LAST BOOK SOME LITERARY NOTES MR. SWINBURNE'S 'POEMS AND BALLADS' (Third Series) A CHINESE SAGE MR. PATER'S 'APPRECIATIONS' SENTENTIAE