Reviews

 

The fifth book in this well packaged and entertaining series has found its perfect subject. Here are witty one-liners, biting comments, and memorable bon mots by one of the world's great literary figures and one of the best aphorists of all times.

Booksource

Entertaining to browse through, and still quite pertinent after all these years.

Chattanooga Free Press

...several laughs to a page ...

Boston Phoenix

His own words, full of the verbal flair that delighted his contemporaries, are taken from both his well-known works and his more obscure reviews, letters, and appearances in friends' memoirs.

Lambda Publications

We have not been taught to take Oscar Wilde seriously and with each proceeding generation, we seem to be compressing him into a voice that doles out epigrams. Wilde was much more than the dandified wit, immortalized by Gilbert and Sullivan in their opera, Patience.  And yet it is difficult to go beyond the epigrams and the wisecracks; how often we have read "I have nothing to declare except my genius" or "I love acting. It is so much more real than life." Now here is a book that gives you all this in context and also gives you the not clever, not witty things that Oscar Wilde said, the pathetic sad things that he said towards the end, in jail and after. The Wit and Wisdom of Oscar Wilde is a well-chosen collection. Would you not be moved to reads Wilde saying "Between me and life there is a mist of words always"?

The Hindu

 

AMAZON

5 Stars

Oscar Wilde once said "Drama is the meeting place of art and life." In this essential, compact volume Ralph Keyes leaves a trail to that corner by gathering the flamboyant author's thorniest, at times most insightful quotes and anecdotes. Keyes uses Wilde's plays, reviews, letters, interrogations, even conversational repartee (given its own section) which remained Wilde's signature to his time.

Keyes divides Wilde's epigrams and puns into brief, easily readable sections. Wilde twists traditional views on permanent truths and those of his day: altruism ("Charity creates a multitude of sins.") history ("History is merely gossip.") theology, poverty, dissent ("Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation.")

Above all, Wilde (through Keyes' selections) quips and dissects each of the fine arts (music, prose, painting) and roles for creator, viewer, interpreter. He addresses the writer ("Even prophets correct their proofs.") critic ("Criticism is the highest form of autobiography"), and artist ("Like the Greek gods, artists are known only to each other.")

Amid his fast-paced one liners on male-female relations you sense how Wilde viewed marriage over and above his well-known bromide, "Divorces are made in heaven." The book ends with Wilde explaining and defending the homosexual relationship he called "the love that dare not speak its name". Whether or not you accept Wilde's lifestyle preferences, his eloquent, sad defense of a letter he wrote a younger man is moving as he describes the unique merge of intellect and youthful energy which to him formed "the noblest sort of affection." It is as close to heartfelt as anyone could get who once said, "A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal."

Oscar Wilde was parodied, vilified, and eventually imprisoned for his beliefs and flamboyance. But he eventually influenced artists from George Bernard Shaw to John Lennon, staking a claim as the earliest example of a postmodern artist. This book helps introduce Wilde's full books and plays (Keyes references them consistently and provides a full bibliography), or helps you reference witty, intellectual (or pseudo-intellectual, as Wilde might have preferred) quotes for any occasion. (As to plagiarizing, Wilde himself called it, "the privilege of the appreciative man.") His full literary courses are nutritious and filling enough, but The Wit and Wisdom of Oscar Wilde is as savory when reading or writing as salt is when dining.

Anthony G. Pizza (Florida)

 

5 Stars

This compendium of quotes from Oscar Wilde is arranged by subject matter alphabetically and provides a great deal of entertainment for $7 bucks. Not to mention it is the ultimate source for witty quotations to make you the life of the party. Seriously, a great book to page through at random for some laughs and thought provoking witticisms from the most quotable modern author.

R. J. Marsella (California)