Lord Arthur Saville's Crime; The Portrait of Mr. W. H. and Other Stories

by Oscar Wilde

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1907. Excerpt: ... LORD ARTHUR SAVILE'S CRIME. I. It was Lady Windermere's last reception before Easter, and Bentinck House was even more crowded than usual. Six Cabinet Ministers had come on from the Speaker's Levee in their stars and ribands, all the pretty women wore their smartest dresses, and at the end of the picture-gallery stood the Princess Sophia of Carlsriihe, a heavy Tartar-looking lady, with tiny black eyes and wonderful emeralds, talking bad French at the top of her voice, and laughing immoderately at everything that was said to her. It was certainly a wonderful medley of people. Gorgeous peeress chatted affably to violent Radicals, popular preachers brushed coat-tails with eminent sceptics, a perfect bevy of bishops kept following a stout prima-donna from room to room, on the staircase stood several Royal Academicians, disguised as artists, and it was said that at one time the supper-room was absolutely crammed with geniuses. In fact, it was one of Lady Windermere's best nights, and the Princess stayed till nearly half-past eleven. As soon as she had gone, Lady Windermere returned to the picture-gallery, where a celebrated political economist was solemnly explaining the scientific theory of music to an indignant virtuoso from Hungary, and began to talk to the Duchess of Paisley. She looked wonderfully beautiful with her grand ivory throat, her large blue forget-me-not eyes, and her heavy coils of golden hair. Or pur they were--not that pale straw colour that nowadays usurps the gracious name of gold, but such gold as is woven into sunbeams or hidden in strange amber; and they gave to her face something of the frame of a saint, with not a little of the fascination of a sinner. She was a curious psychological study. Early in life she had discovered the important truth that nothing looks s...

Genres: Classics, Short Stories, Literature, Fiction

42 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1891

About the author

Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and his criminal conviction for gross indecency for homosexual acts.
Wilde's parents were Anglo-Irish intellectuals in Dublin. In his youth, Wilde learned to speak fluent French and German. At university, he read Greats; he demonstrated himself to be an exceptional classicist, first at Trinity College Dublin, then at Magdalen College, Oxford. He became associated with the emerging philosophy of aestheticism, led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles.
Wilde tried his hand at various literary activities: he wrote a play, published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on "The English Renaissance" in art and interior decoration, and then returned to London where he lectured on his American travels and wrote reviews for various periodicals. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversational skill, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day. At the turn of the 1890s, he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into what would be his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). Wilde returned to drama, writing Salome (1891) in French while in Paris, but it was refused a licence for England due to an absolute prohibition on the portrayal of Biblical subjects on the English stage. Undiscouraged, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late-Victorian London.
At the height of his fame and success, while An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) were still being performed in London, Wilde issued a civil writ against John Sholto Douglas, the 9th Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel. The Marquess was the father of Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. The libel hearings unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and criminal prosecution for gross indecency with other males. The jury was unable to reach a verdict and so a retrial was ordered. In the second trial Wilde was convicted and sentenced to two years' hard labour, the maximum penalty, and was jailed from 1895 to 1897. During his last year in prison he wrote De Profundis (published posthumously in abridged form in 1905), a long letter that discusses his spiritual journey through his trials and is a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure. On the day of his release, he caught the overnight steamer to France, never to return to Britain or Ireland. In France and Italy, he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life.

Reviews

[Blazz J]

5/5. Splača se pomuditi tudi po krajši, manj skomercializirani Wildovi pisavi - ker to ni osiromašena, samo-sebi-namenska, čeprav larpurartistična.

[Suheyla]

Oscar Wild'ın küçük bir öykü kitabı. Aynı öyküleri Bütün masallar Bütün Öyküler kitabında da okuduğum için bu gereksiz bir kayıt oldu.

[Eva Praskova]

I think Oscar Wilde's stories are a funny yet scathing social satire of his times and yet I can see how it stretches till modern days. We might have different vernaculars, but sentiments and attitudes changed very little.

[Sara Joelle]

Sensational gothic suspense story, where the self is an outsider

[tere]

Great book. I love his short stories.

[Taher Raja]

I liked the Irony of the story!
The one who made Lies his life
ended up losing through it his life.

[Franco Zuzunaga]

It is ridiculous in a manner that you don't have to suspend disbelief. I will start recommending this as a good introduction to Wilde.

[Sayo -bibliotequeish-]

A collection of short stories-

Lord Arthur Savile's Crime
Poor Lord Arthur, desperately wants to marry the beautiful Sybil, but obviously he can not marry her, until he kills someone.

The Canterville Ghost
please see my review

The Sphinx Without A Secret
A man falls in love with a mysterious woman, but can mysterious women be trusted.

The Model Millionaire Millionaire models, ... are rare enough; but, by Jove, model millionaires are rarer still!’

The Portrait Of Mr W H
The Legend of Willie Hughes
A dark, tragic comedy

[Joey Pendered]

I found this book very funny but at the same time it was written very serious and formal. It also gave me insight into how some of Lords and Ladies of the 19th thought and what they could believe.
The book for me started out a bit slow but the middle and especially the ending made up for it for me.

[Elnaz]

First story(lord arthur) was'nt good,I think he was crazy!!

[Debbie Hazeleger]

I just love Wilde's work and the absurdity of this particular short story is delicious

[Tia]

Cute, but ended abruptly