This volume offers fresh approaches to well-known works such as The Picture of Dorian Gray while paying serious attention to his lesser known writings and activities, including his earliest attempts at emulating the English Romantics, his editing of Woman’s World, and his fascination with anarchism.

List of Figures

Preface and Acknowledgments

Notes on Contributors

Introduction

PART I - Romanticism, Nihilism, and Revivalism: Oscar Wilde, 1874-1882

1 Oscar Wilde and the Importance of Being Romantic - Chris Foss (University of Mary Washington)

2 Reconsidering Wilde’s Vera; or, the Nihilists- Elizabeth Carolyn Miller (University of California, Davis)

3 Misrecognizing Wilde: Media and Performance on the American Tour of 1882 - Gregory Castle (Arizona State University)

PART II -  JOURNALISM: OSCAR WILDE AND THE WOMAN’S WORLD, 1887-1889

4 The Aesthetic Character of Oscar Wilde’s Woman’s World - Molly Youngkin (Loyola Marymount University)

5 Oscar Wilde, Aesthetic Dress, and the Modern Woman: Or Why Sargent’s Portrait of Ellen Terry Appeared in Woman’s World - Loretta Clayton (Macon State College)

PART III -  Faith, Belief, and Fiction: Oscar Wilde, 1889-1891

6 Sexual Gnosticism: The Procreative Code of “The Portrait of Mr. W. H.” - James Campbell (University of Central Florida)

7 Reading and Re-reading: Wilde, Newman, and the Fiction of Belief - Rachel Ablow (New York State University at Buffalo)

8 Oscar Wilde’s Poetic Injustice in The Picture of Dorian Gray - Neil Hultgren (California State University)

Part IV: Translation, Performance, and Fashion: Oscar Wilde and the Stage

9 Wilde’s French - William A. Cohen – (University of Maryland)

10 Fashioning the Modern Woman’s Sexual Turn from Salomé to Ulysses, 1892-1922 - Lois Cucullu (University of Minnesota)

11 Oscar Wilde’s Anadoodlegram: A Genetic, Performative Reading of An Ideal Husband - John Paul Riquelme (Boston University)

12 Transgressive Props; or Oscar Wilde’s E(a)rnest Signifier - Felicia J. Ruff (Wagner College)

Part V - Modern Quests for Oscar Wilde

13 Christopher Millard’s Mysterious Book: Oscar Wilde, Baron Corvo, and the Unwritten Quest - Ellen Crowell (Saint Louis University)

Index