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Oscar Wilde
- A Life
- Narrated by: John Pirkis
- Length: 34 hrs and 27 mins
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Publisher's Summary
The fullest, most textural, most accurate - most human - account of Oscar Wilde's unique and dazzling life - based on extensive new research and newly discovered materials, from Wilde's personal letters and transcripts of his first trial to newly uncovered papers of his early romantic (and dangerous) escapades and the two-year prison term that shattered his soul and his life.
"Simply the best modern biography of Wilde." (Evening Standard)
Drawing on material that has come to light in the past 30 years, including newly discovered letters, documents, first draft notebooks, and the full transcript of the libel trial, Matthew Sturgis meticulously portrays the key events and influences that shaped Oscar Wilde's life, returning the man "to his times, and to the facts," giving us Wilde's own experience as he experienced it.
Here, fully and richly portrayed, is Wilde's Irish childhood; a dreamy, aloof boy; a stellar classicist at boarding school; a born entertainer with a talent for comedy and a need for an audience; his years at Oxford, a brilliant undergraduate punctuated by his reckless disregard for authority...his arrival in London, in 1878, "already noticeable everywhere"...his 10-year marriage to Constance Lloyd, the father of two boys; Constance unwittingly welcoming young men into the household who became Oscar's lovers, and dying in exile at the age of 39...Wilde's development as a playwright...becoming the high priest of the aesthetic movement; his successes...his celebrity...and in later years, his irresistible pull toward another - double - life, in flagrant defiance and disregard of England's strict sodomy laws ("the blackmailer's charter"); the tragic story of his fall that sent him to prison for two years at hard labor, destroying his life and shattering his soul.
Critic Reviews
ONE OF THE WASHINGTON POST'S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
“Exhaustively researched, enlightening and lively . . . The story of the man in full, with flaws and fine qualities almost equally balanced . . . Sturgis does not pretend to be a critic—one of his gripes against Ellmann is that he approached his biography as a literary critic rather than a historian—and he does not essay any overarching judgments. Instead he delivers the judgments of Wilde’s own day: ‘The Ballad of Reading Gaol’ turns out to have been by far the most popular of Wilde’s works during his own lifetime, a fact I found surprising. The opinions of Wilde’s more perceptive contemporaries can make us think.”—Brooke Allen, Wall Street Journal
“Give yourself a present: Pick up a copy of Oscar Wilde: A Life . . . Sturgis’s biography is now the fullest one-volume account of the iconic fin-de-siècle writer, aesthete, wit and gay martyr. It draws on the most up-to-date manuscript discoveries and scholarship, but deliberately sticks closely to Wilde’s life.”—Michael Dirda, The Washington Post
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What listeners say about Oscar Wilde
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- James Messelbeck
- 01-20-22
I didn’t know.…
Many inchoate impressions of OW were wonderfully fleshed out by this comprehensive review of this culture revolutionaries’ life. Examples: his advocacy for his home country; his socialist sentiments; loved US travel discussion; made me wish I could have experienced a conversation with him. His tragic and considered self destructive behavior was equally detailed. His suicidal compulsion to blithely ignore laws was not to become a martyr for human rights but an irrational compulsion. His legacy certainly surpasses his wildest conceptions and we are a better species because of Oscar Wilde.
2 people found this helpful
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- Secutor
- 11-21-21
Wilde Made Tame
Stultifyingly dull. I am surprised. Gave up halfway through without feeling I knew anything about the man himself and still less about his accomplishments. Probably a great dinner party guest, but not to spend 34 and a half hours with.
2 people found this helpful
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- Mary Sikes
- 03-21-23
Amazing and troubling story
Have always appreciated Wilde and his sardonic humor. This was a compelling tale on so many levels on him, society and being gay.
But, in the end the tragedy and callous treatment and utter destruction of his wife and sons by him is utterly the most devastating aspect. I can forgive, empathize all, but that destruction by him of these innocents
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- Raphael Hythlodae
- 01-13-23
Brilliant portrait of the loveable, tragic dandy
This is one of those audiobooks I never wanted to end. It is superb in every way. A few highlights: (1) the author unfolds Wilde's aestheticism (and its sources in Keats, Ruskin, Swinburne, etc.), and his creative accomplishments, with patience, care, and deep understanding, I was surprised to learn both of Wilde's brilliant Oxford career, and his deep roots in, and commitment to, Irish culture; (2) the story of Wilde's 1882 American lecture tour is a rollicking and vastly enjoyable romp--the scenes of Wilde, the quintessential stylish dandy, he of the white lily and beribboned slippers, dining with miners deep in a Colorado silver mine, and bringing the gospel of aestheticism to every whistle-stop town in the Midwest--hilarious and unforgettable; (3) the tragic period of Wilde's life--the excesses, self-indulgence, even selfishness, and the increasing recklessness of his sexual behavior--culminating in the tragic downfall of his trial, conviction, and sentence to imprisonment with hard-labor--and the final, lonely, melancholy years in Paris--all this is presented by the author in great detail, very frankly, and based on copious and up-to-date research. Finally, the narration by John Pirkis is wonderful, first-rate--one of those top-tier narrators who do their work so well your attention is never distracted from the content.
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Oscar Wilde’s life - like his wit - was alive with paradox. He was both an early exponent and a victim of ‘celebrity culture’: famous for being famous, he was lauded and ridiculed in equal measure. His achievements were frequently downplayed, his successes resented. He had a genius for comedy but strove to write tragedies. He was an unabashed snob who nevertheless delighted in exposing the faults of society. He affected a dandified disdain but was prone to great acts of kindness.
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"Biographers, the body snatchers of literature".
- By Harry Flashman on 03-22-19
By: Matthew Sturgis
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Oscar Wilde Collection: The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Importance of Being Earnest, and The Canterville Ghost
- By: Oscar Wilde
- Narrated by: Jonathan Waters
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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If you are a fan of literature in general and enjoy novels that have become classics of their time, then you may have stumbled upon the works of Oscar Wilde from time to time. Here, in the Oscar Wilde Collection, you can own three of his greatest works: The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Importance of Being Earnest, and The Canterville Ghost.
By: Oscar Wilde
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The Uncensored Picture of Dorian Gray
- By: Oscar Wilde, Nicholas Frankel - editor
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Over 120 years after Oscar Wilde submitted The Picture of Dorian Gray for publication, the uncensored version of his novel appears here for the first time in audio. This volume restores material, including instances of graphic homosexual content, removed by the novel's first editor, who feared it would be "offensive" to Victorians.
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A Classic, But Not Here
- By Eugenia on 07-05-21
By: Oscar Wilde, and others
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Stephen Fry Presents: Oscar Wilde's Stories For All Ages
- Volume 1
- By: Oscar Wilde
- Narrated by: Stephen Fry
- Length: 2 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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"Oscar Wilde's Fairy Tales continue to exert the same pull over the imagination and emotions as they did when he first read them to his children in the 1880s. Written with inspired poetic intensity and sudden flowerings of the matchless wit for which he is so well remembered, the stories combine the wisdom of parables with the impact of drama."
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Unexpected
- By Kindle Customer on 09-17-12
By: Oscar Wilde
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The Picture of Dorian Gray
- Penguin Classics
- By: Oscar Wilde
- Narrated by: Ben Barnes
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Enthralled by his own exquisite portrait, Dorian Gray exchanges his soul for eternal youth and beauty. Influenced by his friend Lord Henry Wotton, he is drawn into a corrupt double life; indulging his desires in secret while remaining a gentleman in the eyes of polite society. Only his portrait bears the traces of his decadence. The novel was a succès de scandale, and the book was later used as evidence against Wilde at the Old Bailey in 1895. It has lost none of its power to fascinate and disturb.
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Recommend this version
- By Selene Willingham on 06-16-20
By: Oscar Wilde
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The Importance of Being Earnest (Dramatized)
- By: Oscar Wilde
- Narrated by: James Marsters, Charles Busch, Emily Bergl, and others
- Length: 1 hr and 58 mins
- Original Recording
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This final play from the pen of Oscar Wilde is a stylish send-up of Victorian courtship and manners, complete with assumed names, mistaken lovers, and a lost handbag. Jack and Algernon are best friends, both wooing ladies who think their names are Ernest, "that name which inspires absolute confidence". Wilde's effervescent wit, scathing social satire, and high farce make this one of the most cherished plays in the English language.
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Delightfully silly
- By Tad Davis on 09-12-11
By: Oscar Wilde
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Easter Rising: A History from Beginning to End
- By: Hourly History
- Narrated by: Bridger Conklin
- Length: 1 hr and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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In the midst of World War I, the Easter Rising took place in Dublin and throughout Ireland in April 1916. The revolutionary movement faced many problems from the beginning, including splintered leadership, disorganized support, opposition from moderate supporters of home rule, and prepared retaliation from the British.
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Review
- By Brendan O'Connor on 08-11-20
By: Hourly History
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The Picture of Dorian Gray
- By: Oscar Wilde
- Narrated by: Russell Tovey
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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A disturbing tale of a young man's uncanny ability to remain both young and beautiful while descending into a life of heartless debauchery, The Picture of Dorian Gray was considered proof of both Wilde's genius and his perversion. Oscar Wilde's scandalous best seller of 1891 was one of the most damning pieces of evidence used against him in the trial that brought about his downfall.
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A twisted tale of vanity and poisonous people
- By Shantastic on 10-02-19
By: Oscar Wilde
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Peter the Great
- His Life and World
- By: Robert K. Massie
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 43 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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This superbly told story brings to life one of the most remarkable rulers––and men––in all of history and conveys the drama of his life and world. The Russia of Peter's birth was very different from the Russia his energy, genius, and ruthlessness shaped. Crowned co-Tsar as a child of ten, after witnessing bloody uprisings in the streets of Moscow, he would grow up propelled by an unquenchable curiosity, everywhere looking, asking, tinkering, and learning, fired by Western ideas.
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Narrater ruins everything
- By BrendaLouQuilts on 12-30-11
By: Robert K. Massie
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De Profundis
- By: Oscar Wilde, Merlin Holland - introduction
- Narrated by: Simon Russell Beale, Merlin Holland
- Length: 4 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Written during his time in Reading Gaol, De Profundis is Oscar Wilde's moving letter to Lord Alfred Douglas, whose relationship with Wilde led to the poet's imprisonment. Here Wilde repudiates Lord Alfred and reflects on his ordeal, acknowledging how the depths of his sorrow have helped liberate him toward a fuller, freer wisdom. Brimming with beautiful passages, De Profundis is a profound and inspiring treatise on the meaning of suffering.
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Sorrows
- By SactoMan on 09-04-18
By: Oscar Wilde, and others
Related to this topic
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Isak Dinesen
- The Life of a Storyteller
- By: Judith Thurman
- Narrated by: Davina Porter
- Length: 21 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Isak Dinesen earned international fame for Seven Gothic Tales and Out of Africa, and other stories that skillfully combine elements of fable, social conflict, and psychological drama. She was twice nominated for the Nobel Prize. Yet the story of her life - her travels, affairs, and friendships - remains the greatest story of all.
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over-written
- By Jacqui Good on 10-19-18
By: Judith Thurman
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The Man in the Red Coat
- By: Julian Barnes
- Narrated by: Saul Reichlin
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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In the summer of 1885, three Frenchmen arrived in London for a few days' intellectual shopping: a prince, a count, and a commoner with an Italian name. In time, each of these men would achieve a certain level of renown, but who were they then and what was the significance of their sojourn to England? Answering these questions, Julian Barnes unfurls the stories of their lives which play out against the backdrop of the Belle Epoque in Paris. Our guide through this world is Samuel Pozzi, the society doctor, free-thinker, and man of science with a famously complicated private life....
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Pathetic narration makes this title unbearable
- By Chris Quigg on 02-27-20
By: Julian Barnes
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Edith Wharton
- By: Hermione Lee
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Abridged
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With profound empathy and insight, Hermione Lee brilliantly interweaves Wharton's life with the evolution of her writing, the full scope of which shows her to be far more daring than her stereotype as lapidarian chronicler of the Gilded Age. In its revelation of both the woman and the writer, Edith Wharton is a landmark biography.
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Gardens Over Great Novels
- By Aaron Elliott on 04-26-07
By: Hermione Lee
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The Invisible Woman
- The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens
- By: Claire Tomalin
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Charles Dickens and Nelly Ternan met in 1857; she was 18, a hard-working actress performing in his production of The Frozen Deep, and he was 45, the most lionized writer in England. Out of their meeting came a love affair that lasted 13 years and destroyed Dickens's marriage while effacing Nelly Ternan from the public record.
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Interesting
- By Jean on 01-21-13
By: Claire Tomalin
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Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World
- By: Simon Callow
- Narrated by: Simon Callow
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Dickens was one of the first true celebrity authors. Thousands of fans in Britain and America eagerly awaited each new installment of his stories, and flocked to see him on his legendary speaking tours. Not only did he create an incredible cast of characters on the page, but he was also a dazzling mimic and storyteller, and he wrote, stage-managed, and acted in plays for the public. Throughout his life, from his childhood performances to his legendarily powerful reading tours, Dickens was fanatical about the stage.
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Loved it!
- By Tad Davis on 08-20-12
By: Simon Callow