My Virtual Reading Room

...the more they remain the same, no? Note the date...
~~
To an Income-tax Inspector

[? April 1889]                         [Woman's World, La Belle Sauvage]

Sir,
It was arranged last year that I should send in my income-tax return from Chelsea where I reside, as I am resigning my position here and will not be with Messrs Cassell after August.
I think it would be better to continue that arrangement. I wish your notices were not so agitating and did not hold out such dreadful threats.
A penalty of fifty pounds sounds like a relic of mediaeval torture.

Your obedient servant,

Oscar Wilde

[from "Selected Letters of Oscar Wilde"]

"Life is terribly deficient in form. Its catastrophes happen in the wrong way and to the wrong people. There is a grotesque horror about its comedies, and its tragedies seem to culminate in farce. One is always wounded when one approaches it. Things last either too long or not long enough."

--Oscar Wilde, from "The Critic as Artist"

To Norman Forbes-Robertson
[Early June 1885]                [16 Tite Street]

Dear Norman,

Thanks for your congratulations. Yes, come tomorrow. The baby is wonderful: it has a bridge to its nose! which the nurse says is proof of genius! it also has a superb voice, which it freely exercises: its style is essentially Wagnerian.

[...]

(from "Selected Letters of Oscar Wilde") 

Symphony in Yellow

An omnibus across the bridge
Crawls like a yellow butterfly,
And, here and there a passer-by
Shows like a little restless midge.

Big barges full of yellow hay
Are moored against the shadowy wharf,
And, like a yellow silken scarf,
The thick fog hangs along the quay.

The yellow leaves begin to fade
And flutter from the temple elms,
And at my feet the pale green Thames
Lies like a rod of rippled jade.

(Oscar Wilde)

found via poemsdaily

"Life is never fair. And perhaps for most of us, it is just as well that it is not."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

LADY CHILTERN. Robert is as incapable of doing a foolish thing as he is of doing a wrong thing.

LORD GORING. [After a long pause.] Nobody is incapable of doing a foolish thing. Nobody is incapable of doing a wrong thing.

LADY CHILTERN. Are you a Pessimist? What will the other dandies say? They will all have to go into mourning.

LORD GORING. [Rising.] No, Lady Chiltern, I am not a Pessimist. Indeed I am not sure that I quite know what Pessimism really means. All I do know is that life cannot be understood without much charity, cannot be lived without much charity. It is love, and not German philosophy, that is the true explanation of this world, whatever may be the explanation of the next.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"A man's life is of more value than a woman's. It has larger issues, wider scope, greater ambitions. A woman's life revolves in curves of emotions. It is upon lines of intellect that a man's life progresses."

MABEL CHILTERN. Oh, I love London Society! I think it has immensely improved. It is entirely composed now of beautiful idiots and brilliant lunatics. Just what Society should be.

LORD CAVERSHAM. Hum! Which is Goring? Beautiful idiot, or the other thing?

MABEL CHILTERN. [Gravely.] I have been obliged for the present to put Lord Goring into a class quite by himself. But he is developing charmingly!

LORD CAVERSHAM. Into what?

MABEL CHILTERN. [With a little curtsey.] I hope to let you know very soon, Lord Caversham!

A pity nobody took a picture! XD
**
....Wilde sought to juxtapose the beauty he saw in art onto daily life.^[98] This was a practical as well as philosophical project: in Oxford he surrounded himself with blue china and lilies; in America he lectured on interior design; in London he is reputed to have paraded down Piccadilly carrying a lily, long hair flowing.
(from Wikipedia)

As others on LJ pointed out, today is the 109th anniversary of Oscar Wilde's death...Here is his poem:

The Ballad of Reading Gaol

by Oscar Wilde
( Read more... )