Intentions is a collection of essays and dialogues by Oscar Wilde, first published in 1891. In these pieces he discusses art, criticism, nature, masks, and the artist's role, often through witty paradoxes. It is worth listening for Wilde's elegant style and stimulating ideas about art and life.
For teachers and schools: paste the code into your site or blog.
Cover illustration generated by AI.
Text source: gutenberg.org · The work is in the public domain.
Opening of the book
Transcribed from the 1913 Methuen and Co edition by David Price, email [email protected] INTENTIONS BY OSCAR WILDE METHUEN & CO. LTD. 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. LONDON First Published, at 1s. net, in 1913 This Book was First Published 1891 Second Edition 1894 First Published (Third Edition) by Methuen and Co. 1908 Fourth Edition 1909 Fifth Edition 1911 DEDICATED TO MRS. CAREW BY THE AUTHOR’S LITERARY EXECUTOR CONTENTS
PAGE The Decay of Lying 1 Pen, Pencil, and Poison 57 The Critic as Artist 95 The Truth of Masks 221 THE DECAY OF LYING: AN OBSERVATION A DIALOGUE. Persons: Cyril and Vivian. Scene: the Library of a country house in Nottinghamshire. Cyril (coming in through the open window from the terrace). My dear Vivian, don’t coop yourself up all day in the library. It is a perfectly lovely afternoon. The air is exquisite. There is a mist upon the woods, like the purple bloom upon a plum. Let us go and lie on the grass and smoke cigarettes and enjoy Nature. Vivian. Enjoy Nature! I am glad to say that I have entirely lost that faculty. People tell us that Art makes us love Nature more than we loved her before; that it reveals her secrets to us; and that after a careful study of Corot and Constable we see things in her that had escaped our observation. My own experience is that the more we study Art, the less we care for Nature. What Art really reveals to us is Nature’s lack of design, her curious crudities, her extraordinary monotony, her absolutely unfinished condition. Nature has good intentions, of course, but, as Aristotle once said, she cannot carry them out. When I look at a landscape I cannot help seeing all its defects. It is fortunate for us, however, that Nature is so imperfect, as otherwise we should have no art at all. Art is our spirited protest, our gallant attempt to teach Nature her proper place. As for the infinite variety of Nature, that is a pure myth.
Readnara
