Revising Wilde
Subtitle: society and subversion in the plays of Oscar Wilde
By: Sos Eltis.
Series: Oxford English monographs
Publisher: Clarendon Press
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Oxford
Language: eng
Number of pages: 226
Subjects: Wilde, Oscar, 1854-1900 -- Dramatic works.; Literature and society -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century.; Didactic drama, English -- History and criticism.; Social problems in literature.; Social norms in literature.; Dissenters in literature.
Description: A radical re-examination of Oscar Wilde's plays, Revising Wilde challenges long-established views of the writer as a dilettante and dandy, revealing him instead as a serious philosopher and social critic who used his plays to subvert the traditional values of Victorian literature and society.

By tracing Wilde's painstaking revisions and redraftings of his plays, Sos Eltis uncovers themes subsequently concealed in successive versions which demonstrate that Wilde was in fact an anarchist, a socialist, and a feminist.

Wilde borrowed plots and incidents from numerous contemporary French and English plays, but he then subtly rewrote his plagiarized material in order to mock the very conventions he imitated. By analysing previously unconsidered manuscript drafts, and comparing the finished plays with their sources, Eltis displays a surprising depth and complexity to Wilde's work.

The little-known early play, Vera; or, The Nihilists is revealed as a politically radical drama, the society plays are shown to challenge Victorian sexual and social mores, and The Importance of Being Earnest is interpreted as an anarchic farce, which reflects the Utopian vision of Wilde's political essay, 'The Soul of Man under Socialism'. Taking into account the most recent scholarship and criticism, this accessible study will be of interest to Wilde specialists and enthusiasts alike.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.