Aptly, it was placed in a handbag.Ī short story (later expanded into a novella) inspired by the mysterious dedicatee of Shakespeare’s Sonnets from 1609, ‘Mr W. In 2007, a first edition of the play was donated to a charity shop in Nantwich, Cheshire. It’s known for Lady Bracknell’s famous two-word line: ‘A handbag?’ It’s a very witty play whose plot is in the tradition of old English comedies and farces. Wilde’s best-known play, from 1895, The Importance of Being Earnest – which sees two male friends, Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff, creating the perfect fictional excuse to explain their double lives to those closest to them – has been read in light of Wilde’s own double life (wife and children in Chelsea, assignations with young men in Soho).
The story is essentially a variation on the Faust tale, with the titular Dorian Gray (a young, handsome man) giving his soul in exchange for the ability to remain young and handsome while the portrait of him ages and decays, especially as Dorian slides further into moral corruption and sin. The novel is a witty blend of Gothic horror with the ideas underpinning Aestheticism, or the ‘art for art’s sake’ movement. But in many ways Wilde’s only novel is the ultimate Victorian moral fable, about the dangers of living a selfish life driven by the pursuit of ‘new sensations’ above all else. Even though he was supposed to go to Egypt, he cared so much for the prince that he stayed.Wilde’s famous preface to this – his one novel, published in book form in 1891 after being serialised the year before – states that ‘there is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book’. The prince gave up pieces of himself to help his people. I love that there was gold trimming all over the pages. As soon as the bird died, there was a cracking sound in the statue, a broken heart.
He stayed with him even in the winter and became too cold to survive and he died. I love this change because at first the bird wanted to leave because he wanted to go to Egypt.
After the bird takes the sapphires out of the princes eyes, the bird decides to stay with the prince because he is now blind. Since the prince is so beautiful and covered in gold and gems, he tells the bird to take the gold and gems and give them to people in need. As a statue, he finally sees these hardships and when a swallow lands on him he gives the bird a mission. Absolutely loved this book! It is the story of a golden statue of a prince who didn't see the poor conditions of his city while he was alive.
0 kommentar(er)
