When «The Soul of Man Under Socialism» first saw the light of day in 1891, this, the only explicitly political essay by Oscar Wilde, was hardly noticed, for he published four books in that year alone. It did not trigger a scandal, even though it is devoted to the scandal of man exploiting man at such length and in such a knowledgeable way that it is topical even today. Having seen this scandal with his own eyes in the United Kingdom and Ireland as well as in the United States and France, Wilde formulated insights nowadays brought forward by thinkers and historians of globalisation. His English is brilliant as ever and provocative, also it is informed by his profound reflections on socialism and individualism in the context of Christianity.
Оглавление
Oscar Wilde. The Soul of Man under Socialism
The Soul of Man under Socialism
CONTENTS
PREFACE
APHORISMS ABOUT LITERATURE1
BIBLIOGRAPHY
NOTES. Preface
The Soul of Man under Socialism
Aphorisms about Literature
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
POSTFACE. OSCAR WILDE, THE SOUL OF MAN UNDER SOCIALISM
I Individualism and Art
II The Paradoxical Method
III Towards a New Moral Science
BIBLIOGRAPHY
NOTES
INDEX OF NAMES AND OF TERMS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Отрывок из книги
Oscar Wilde
Arthur Humphreys
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This is how I was able to experience another look over Wilde’s shoulder. This feat, with regard to a work like The Picture of Dorian Gray, can be experienced directly by looking at manuscript and typescript, something which quite a few editors have been able to point out: Indeed, Wilde was right in admitting that writing caused him pain. This can minutely be proved by looking at papers preserved of his creation process. In their absence, the pains undergone by the translator to create a German text of almost the same length as the original but also preserving the rhythm of the latter are more than just an indication of what kind of exertion was Wilde’s own.
This insight is all the more important for the simple reason that “The Soul of Man under Socialism” is all but a historical relic from the 19th century begging to be revived in the 21st century. On the contrary, the text is unparalleled in terms of its topicality – both with regard to the culture it came from – the United Kingdom faced with hardly predictable sociopolitical changes both then and now6 – and with regard to the culture the essay was translated for and whose background also informs the text of this preface in English – Germany which in economic and political terms seems as much in danger now as it was in Oscar Wilde’s lifetime.
