Declaring His Genius : Oscar Wilde in North America / Roy Morris, Jr.
2013
PR5823 .M65 2013eb
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Details
Title
Declaring His Genius : Oscar Wilde in North America / Roy Morris, Jr.
Author
Morris, Jr., Roy, author.
ISBN
9780674067875
Published
Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2013]
Copyright
©2013
Language
English
Language Note
In English.
Description
1 online resource : 27 halftones
Other Standard Identifiers
10.4159/harvard.9780674067875 doi
Call Number
PR5823 .M65 2013eb
Summary
Arriving at the port of New York in 1882, a 27-year-old Oscar Wilde quipped he had "nothing to declare but my genius." But as Roy Morris, Jr., reveals in this sparkling narrative, Wilde was, for the first time in his life, underselling himself. A chronicle of the sensation that was Wilde's eleven-month speaking tour of America, Declaring His Genius offers an indelible portrait of both Oscar Wilde and the Gilded Age. Wilde covered 15,000 miles, delivered 140 lectures, and met everyone who was anyone. Dressed in satin knee britches and black silk stockings, the long-haired apostle of the British Aesthetic Movement alternately shocked, entertained, and enlightened a spellbound nation. Harvard students attending one of his lectures sported Wildean costume, clutching sunflowers and affecting world-weary poses. Denver prostitutes enticed customers by crying: "We know what makes a cat wild, but what makes Oscar Wilde?" Whitman hoisted a glass to his health, while Ambrose Bierce denounced him as a fraud. Wilde helped alter the way post-Civil War Americans-still reeling from the most destructive conflict in their history-understood themselves. In an era that saw rapid technological changes, social upheaval, and an ever-widening gap between rich and poor, he delivered a powerful anti-materialistic message about art and the need for beauty. Yet Wilde too was changed by his tour. Having conquered America, a savvier, more mature writer was ready to take on the rest of the world. Neither Wilde nor America would ever be the same.
Access Note
Access limited to authorized users.
System Details Note
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics
text file PDF
Source of Description
Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)
In
E-BOOK GESAMTPAKET / COMPLETE PACKAGE 2013
E-BOOK PACKAGE LITERATURE 2013
E-BOOK PAKET LITERATURWISSENSCHAFT 2013
HUP Complete eBook Package 2011-2014
HUP eBook Package 2013
HUP eBook Package Backlist 2000-2013
HUP eBook Package Backlist 2000-2014
HUP eBook Package Backlist 2000-2015
E-BOOK PACKAGE LITERATURE 2013
E-BOOK PAKET LITERATURWISSENSCHAFT 2013
HUP Complete eBook Package 2011-2014
HUP eBook Package 2013
HUP eBook Package Backlist 2000-2013
HUP eBook Package Backlist 2000-2014
HUP eBook Package Backlist 2000-2015
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Table of Contents
Frontmatter
Contents
Introduction
1 Too Too Utterly Utter
2 More Wonderful Than Dickens
3 Those Who Dawnce Don't Dine
4 What Would Thoreau Have Said to My Hat-Box!
5 No Well-Behaved River Ought to Act This Way
6 A Very Italy, Without Its Art
7 Don't Shoot the Pianist; He's Doing His Best
8 You Should Have Seen It Before the War
9 The Oscar of the First Period Is Dead
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index
Contents
Introduction
1 Too Too Utterly Utter
2 More Wonderful Than Dickens
3 Those Who Dawnce Don't Dine
4 What Would Thoreau Have Said to My Hat-Box!
5 No Well-Behaved River Ought to Act This Way
6 A Very Italy, Without Its Art
7 Don't Shoot the Pianist; He's Doing His Best
8 You Should Have Seen It Before the War
9 The Oscar of the First Period Is Dead
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index