The Decline of Lying: A Selection of Oscar Wilde's Art Criticism: A Selection of Oscar Wilde's Art Criticism

Author: Oscar Wilde
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-03-01
Features: Life imitates art far more than art imitates life. Outstanding artists create new archetypes, and life tries to imitate them. Art finds its perfection within itself rather than outside itself. The purpose of art is emotion for emotion's sake, while the purpose of life is emotion for action's sake. "Outstanding artists create new archetypes, and life tries to imitate them"; "Life imitates art far more than art imitates life"; "Language is the mother of thought, not the child of thought." A century later, these aesthetic views by the master Oscar Wilde, in terms of their avant-garde and pioneering nature, would still leave us modern people astonished. This book collects and translates Wilde's famous art criticism collection Intentions and another important essay The Soul of Man Under Socialism. Many of Wilde's famous quotes that have beened over the years come from these works. The translator has selected a large number of artistic images to interpret relevant chapters, a first in the translation of Wilde's works, making it particularly precious.