Oscar Wilde: The Double Image
George Woodcock

Oscar Wilde was seemingly drawn to many paradoxes: paganism or Christianity, being a playboy or a prophet, and being an aesthetic clown or a creative critic. He was influenced by Walter Pater and the Epicureans, by John Ruskin’s theories on art and his severe criticisms of the Industrial Revolution, and by the writings of Chuang Tzu, the ancient Chinese Taoist. Yet Wilde was also drawn to Jesus, bravely trying to fit him into his growing asymmetrical system. George Woodcock explores this double image of the celebrated personality and writer, attempting to resolve the contradictions.

The Wilde/Queensberry scandal trial is not much discussed here, but the resultant works are: De Profundis, the letter to Lord Douglas, erstwhile lover and nemesis; The Ballad of Reading Gaol, that heartrending cry of pain from the universal prison. The paradox: this is the same man who wrote frothy plays like The Importance of Being Earnest and the manifesto The Soul of Man Under Socialism, which is included in this book. Socialists do not take this work seriously because they have difficulty envisioning a non-authoritarian society. Oscar Wilde could. He expressed an anarchist, individualist vision, thus coming close to unraveling his, and our own, paradox

George Woodcock (1912-1995) was an award-winning poet, author, essayist and widely known as a literary journalist and historian. He published more than 90 titles on history, biography, philosophy, poetry and literary criticism. 

Praise for Oscar Wilde: The Double Image

George Woodcock has been variously described as “quite possibly the most civilized man in Canada,” “a great human being,” and “a kind of John Stuart Mill of dedication to intellectual excellence and the cause of human liberty.”
--Toronto Star

"…successfully reconciles two disparate views of Wilde: that of upper class dandy and that of social critic.”
--The Gateway

BIOGRAPHY 1989; 308 pages

Oscar Wilde Retail Prices
Paperback:
978-0-921689-42-3 $19.99
Hardcover:
978-0-921689-43-0 $48.99
PDF eBook:
978-1-55164-480-6 $11.99