Oscariana

Oscar Wilde’s collected letters will be referred to perhaps as long as English literature lasts. Apart from the immense epistle which was written to Alfred Douglas from Reading Gaol and published in sections as De Profundis, here are notes, epigrams, flashes of drama, comments and agonies—a work of devoted research covering 900 pages. Yet how much is missing? How many lovely collections worthy of writer and of recipient were hastily destroyed in the panic following the trial; the letters, for instance, to Lily Langtry and to Rennell Rodd. But much has survived, by care or chance, to delight readers of Oscariana.

The Letters of Oscar Wilde, edited by Rupert Hart-Davis. Harcourt, $15.00

SL

About the Author

Sir Shane Leslie

Oscar Wilde’s collected letters will be referred to perhaps as long as English literature lasts. Apart from the immense epistle which was written to Alfred Douglas from Reading Gaol and published in sections as De Profundis, here are notes, epigrams, flashes of drama, comments and agonies—a work of devoted research covering 900 pages. Yet how much is missing? How many lovely collections worthy of writer and of recipient were hastily destroyed in the panic following the trial; the letters, for instance, to Lily Langtry and to Rennell Rodd. But much has survived, by care or chance, to delight readers of Oscariana.

The Letters of Oscar Wilde, edited by Rupert Hart-Davis. Harcourt, $15.00