Introducing Mr Wilde

One of the lovely things about Twitter is that a you can have a passing conversation with soneone in another part of the country about a man who lived a century and a half ago and end up with an amazing post like this:

A friend asked me if I would please write an introduction to the works of Oscar Wilde. I’d pointed out in a conversation that Wilde was an author who could be approached when one was short of time. His works can be dipped into and out of, as well as savoured in more depth. They don’t only work well from different directions, but approaching him from the direction of casual reading or filling in a half hour gives a different sense of the man and his work to thinking “This is a Great Author and I must spend two weeks in solitary study of him.” My friend, David McDonald, wanted to know more. I won’t explain my views of the different readings here, for that would spoil David’s fun. I’ll walk through Wilde’s work and introduce it, from his plays to his lectures to The Ballad of Reading Goal.

The exceedingly clever Gillian Polack has produced a wonderful introduction to Oscar Wilde here – what are you waiting for? Go read it! 🙂

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