Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Penguin (1973), Paperback, 192 pages
Description
It was Lady Windermere's last reception before Easter, and Bentinck House was even more crowded than usual. Six Cabinet Ministers had come on from the Speaker's Levee in their stars and ribands, all the pretty women wore their smartest dresses, and at the end of the picture-gallery stood the Princess Sophia of Carlsruhe, a heavy Tartar-looking lady, with tiny black eyes and wonderful emeralds, talking bad French at the top of her voice, and laughing im-moderately at everything that was said to her.
User reviews
LibraryThing member isabelx
Early in life she had discovered the important truth that nothing looks so like innocence as an indiscretion; and by a series of reckless escapades, half of them quite harmless, she had acquired all the privileges of a personality. She had more than once changed her husband; indeed, Debrett credits
This book contains five short stories from the late 1880s. I read it a long time ago,and recently downloaded it from Project Gutenberg to re-read.
My favourite is Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, whose protagonist is unbelievably gullible when he has his fortune read at a society party.
The Canterville Ghost is the story of a mediaeval English ghost's encounter with a modern American family who torment him and do not respect him at all. It's fun, but seems more like a children's story than the other stories in the book.
The Sphinx Without a Secret was my least favourite, being both dull and and forgettable.
The Model Millionaire was enjoyable, but is another story that I had completely forgotten from the previous time I read it.
In The Portrait of Mr. W. H., the characters discuss the evidence for Shakespeare's sonnets being dedicated to a young actor called Willie Hughes, and keep changing their minds about whether the theory is true or not. I found it amusing how their minds were swayed, as if it were impossible for more than one of them to believe in the Willie Hughes theory at any one time.
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her with three marriages; but as she had never changed her lover, the world had long ago ceased to talk scandal about her.This book contains five short stories from the late 1880s. I read it a long time ago,and recently downloaded it from Project Gutenberg to re-read.
My favourite is Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, whose protagonist is unbelievably gullible when he has his fortune read at a society party.
The Canterville Ghost is the story of a mediaeval English ghost's encounter with a modern American family who torment him and do not respect him at all. It's fun, but seems more like a children's story than the other stories in the book.
The Sphinx Without a Secret was my least favourite, being both dull and and forgettable.
The Model Millionaire was enjoyable, but is another story that I had completely forgotten from the previous time I read it.
In The Portrait of Mr. W. H., the characters discuss the evidence for Shakespeare's sonnets being dedicated to a young actor called Willie Hughes, and keep changing their minds about whether the theory is true or not. I found it amusing how their minds were swayed, as if it were impossible for more than one of them to believe in the Willie Hughes theory at any one time.
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LibraryThing member tmiddleton
It seems to me that some here are not taking into account the potential for wider echoes, for deeper metaphors, contained within some of these stories, beyond the cute and clever word-play and emotional moral parables. There is, it seems to me for example, a rather blatant hint towards the end of
But perhaps its just my cataracts...
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“The Portrait of Mr W.H.” that, as wonderful as the plot's fabrication is, it is itself a particular shadow on a certain cave wall...But perhaps its just my cataracts...
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LibraryThing member meandmybooks
Delicious fun! This is along the lines of “The Importance of Being Earnest” or “An Ideal Husband,” only in short story format rather than a play. Ridiculous, witty, and charming, this story adds a dire prediction and murder to the mix in the courtship of our frivolous and affectionate young
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couple. Oddly, it kept reminding me of that old Alec Guinness movie, “Kind Hearts and Coronets,” although that story ends rather differently. This is Number 59 in Penguin's Little Black Classics series, and is certainly one of my favorites in that collection! Show Less
LibraryThing member edella
amazon PD: The three stories in this book are about ordinary people, people like you and me; but they find themselves in surprising situations. Lord Arthur Savile, a rich man with no enemies, finds out that he must do something terrible before he can marry. Poor young Hughie Erskine gives money to
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an old beggar – but the beggar is not what he seems. And Lord Murchison falls in love with a mystery woman – but what is the strange secret behind the door in Cumnor Street? Show Less
LibraryThing member leslie.98
I found this collection a mixed bag. Probably the best story is the only one I have read before: The Canterville Ghost (and my Project Gutenberg edition has illustrations!). I liked the title story, The Sphinx Without a Secret and A Model Millionaire all right but found the last story, The Portrait
I started listening to the Librivox recording (and did listen to it for The Sphinx Without a Secret) but discovered I had access to a recording narrated by Sir Derek Jacobi via Hoopla. I love Jacobi & he is a marvelous narrator but the Blackstone Audio edition has different contents! It had all of the stories in this Kindle edition except The Sphinx Without a Secret but also 5 additional stories.
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of Mr. W.H. dull and too long.I started listening to the Librivox recording (and did listen to it for The Sphinx Without a Secret) but discovered I had access to a recording narrated by Sir Derek Jacobi via Hoopla. I love Jacobi & he is a marvelous narrator but the Blackstone Audio edition has different contents! It had all of the stories in this Kindle edition except The Sphinx Without a Secret but also 5 additional stories.
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LibraryThing member quondame
The wry distanced tone in which these stories are composed and the consistent observations on the characters are mostly at odds with other tonal elements in these stories and the last is largely a frame around shards of Shakespeare's sonnets supporting the argument that they were addressed to a
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young actor who left Shakespeare's troupe but later returned. This is not rewarding for someone seeking a consistent mood from Oscar Wilde. Show Less
LibraryThing member leslie.98
Derek Jacobi has such a wonderful voice! I would give his narration an extra star but I had some issues with this audiobook. This collection of short stories has somewhat different contents than the Kindle public domain edition (which as I mentioned in my review of the Kindle book) so I will
I got this audiobook from my library via Hoopla & that has 2 major disadvantages. Firstly, I can only access Hoopla by streaming so I can't listen to the audiobook on the go (annoying but I just switched temporarily to the Librivox edition for those times). Second, Hoopla audiobooks have no chapter markings or divisions of any kind. Thus it is extremely important to use the "bookmark" feature! Also, it is quite difficult to skip ahead to a different story. Because this audiobook had different contents than my Kindle, that was particularly annoying for this book as I was trying to listen to specific stories.
Regarding the stories themselves, I will only comment on those not included in the Kindle edition. Two of them I had read before & didn't listen to this time ("The Happy Prince" & "The Devoted Friend" both of which were in my Kindle edition of The Happy Prince and Other Stories) - I remember them as charming stories for children. Two others were new to me & I discovered them to be part of my Kindle edition of A House of Pomegranates: "The Young King" and "The Fisherman and His Soul". These two stories were both too moralizing for my tastes; both had a very strong religious component which reminded me that Wilde must have been raised Catholic (I don't know if he became "lapsed" as an adult but would suspect so). I preferred "The Young King" but neither held much appeal to me.
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comment on the contents here briefly.I got this audiobook from my library via Hoopla & that has 2 major disadvantages. Firstly, I can only access Hoopla by streaming so I can't listen to the audiobook on the go (annoying but I just switched temporarily to the Librivox edition for those times). Second, Hoopla audiobooks have no chapter markings or divisions of any kind. Thus it is extremely important to use the "bookmark" feature! Also, it is quite difficult to skip ahead to a different story. Because this audiobook had different contents than my Kindle, that was particularly annoying for this book as I was trying to listen to specific stories.
Regarding the stories themselves, I will only comment on those not included in the Kindle edition. Two of them I had read before & didn't listen to this time ("The Happy Prince" & "The Devoted Friend" both of which were in my Kindle edition of The Happy Prince and Other Stories) - I remember them as charming stories for children. Two others were new to me & I discovered them to be part of my Kindle edition of A House of Pomegranates: "The Young King" and "The Fisherman and His Soul". These two stories were both too moralizing for my tastes; both had a very strong religious component which reminded me that Wilde must have been raised Catholic (I don't know if he became "lapsed" as an adult but would suspect so). I preferred "The Young King" but neither held much appeal to me.
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LibraryThing member leslie.98
3.5* I found this collection a mixed bag. Probably the best story is the only one I have read before: The Canterville Ghost (and my Project Gutenberg edition has illustrations!). I liked the title story, The Sphinx Without a Secret and A Model Millionaire all right but found the last story, The
I started listening to the Librivox recording (and did listen to it for The Sphinx Without a Secret) but discovered I had access to a recording narrated by Sir Derek Jacobi via Hoopla. I love Jacobi & he is a marvelous narrator but the Blackstone Audio edition has different contents! It had all of the stories in this Kindle edition except The Sphinx Without a Secret but also 5 additional stories.
Show More
Portrait of Mr. W.H. dull and too long.I started listening to the Librivox recording (and did listen to it for The Sphinx Without a Secret) but discovered I had access to a recording narrated by Sir Derek Jacobi via Hoopla. I love Jacobi & he is a marvelous narrator but the Blackstone Audio edition has different contents! It had all of the stories in this Kindle edition except The Sphinx Without a Secret but also 5 additional stories.
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Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1891
1887
Physical description
192 p.; 6.9 inches
ISBN
0140010211 / 9780140010213