OSCAR WILDE (1854 1900)

OSCAR WILDE (1854 – 1900)"I was a man who stood in symbolic relations to the art and culture of my age. The gods had given me almost everything. I hadgenius, a distinguished name, high social position, brilliancy, intellectual daring; I made art a philosophy, and philosophy an art:I altered the minds of men and the colour of things; there was nothing I said or did that did not make people wonder. I treated Artas the supreme reality, and life as a mere mode of fiction. I awoke the imagination of my century so that it created myth andlegend around me. I summed up all systems in a phrase, and all existence in an epigram. But I let myself be lured into long spellsof senseless and sensual ease. I amused myself with being a flaneur, a dandy; a man of fashion. Tired of being on the heights, Ideliberately went to the depths in the search for new sensation. What the paradox was to me in the sphere of thought, perversitybecame to me in the sphere of passion. Desire, at the end, was malady, or a madness, or both. I grew careless of the lives ofothers, I took pleasure where it pleased me, and passed on. I forgot that every little action of the common day makes or unmakescharacter, and that therefore what one has done in the secret chamber one has someday to cry aloud on the house-tops. I ceasedto be lord over myself. I was no longer the captain of my soul, and did not know it. I allowed pleasure to dominate me. I ended inhorrible disgrace.” (De Profundis, 1897)The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) - The Preface1. The artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim. The critic is he who cantranslate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things.2. The highest as the lowest form of criticism is a mode of autobiography. Those who find ugly meanings in beautifulthings are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.3. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect towhom beautiful things mean only beauty.4. There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.5. The nineteenth century dislike of realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass.6. The nineteenth century dislike of romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass. The moral lifeof man forms part of the subject-matter of the artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfectmedium.7. No artist desires to prove anything. Even things that are true can be proved. No artist has ethical sympathies. Anethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style. No artist is ever morbid. The artist can expresseverything.8. Thought and language are to the artist instruments of an art. Vice and virtue are to the artist materials for an art. Fromthe point of view of form, the type of all the arts is the art of the musician. From the point of view of feeling, theactor's craft is the type. All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.9. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril. It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors. Diversity ofopinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital. When critics disagree, the artist is inaccord with himself. We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excusefor making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.10. All art is quite 15.16.17.18.19.20.21.There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.Duty is what we expect from others.I am not young enough to know everything.Time is waste of money.A truth ceases to be true when more than one person believes in it.In examination the foolish ask questions that the wise cann eva regalato molti anni prima era sulla tavola e, come un tempo ( as ofold), gli amorini dalle bianche membra ridevano tutto intorno alla cornice. Lo sollevò, come aveva fatto in quella notte tremendaquando per la prima volta aveva notato il cambiamento nel quadro fatale, e guardò la liscia superficie con occhi disperati e colmidi lacrime (to dim offiscare, velare). Una volta, una persona che lo aveva amato terribilmente gli aveva scritto una lettera folleche terminava con queste parole di adorazione: «Il mondo è cambiato perché tu sei fatto di avorio e d'oro. La curva delle tuelabbra riscrive la storia.» La frase gli ritornò alla mente e la ripeté più volte tra sé, poi imprecò contro la propria bellezza e, gettatolo specchio sul pavimento, lo ridusse a schegge d'argento sotto i tacchi. La bellezza lo aveva rovinato, la bellezza e la giovinezzada lui invocata. Senza queste due cose, la sua vita avrebbe potuto essere senza macchie. La sua bellezza era stata solo unamaschera, la gioventù solo una beffa. Che cos'era la gioventù, nel migliore dei casi? Un'età verde, acerba, un'età di amori (mood stato d’animo, disposizione; inclinazione) superficiali e di pensieri morbosi. Perché ne aveva indossato la livrea? La gioventù loaveva rovinato.Meglio non pensare al passato. Nulla poteva mutarlo. A se stesso, al suo futuro, doveva pensare. James Vane era sepolto in unatomba senza n

OSCAR WILDE (1854 – 1900) "I was a man who stood in symbolic relations to the art and culture of my age. . (De Profundis, 1897) The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) - The Preface 1. The artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim. The critic