Latest Wilde Edition: Oxford University Press

Josephine M. Guy’S edition Criticism: Historical Criticism, Intentions, The Soul of Man is the fourth volume in Oxford University Press’s Oxford English Texts series The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde. Because of developments in the area of textual studies in recent years, many scholars have recognized the need for new, carefully edited and, ideally, definitive editions of the works of well-known authors. In contrast to many of these new editions, the volumes in Oxford’s The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde have appeared with a surprising regularity since the first volume in 2000. This efficiency is to the credit of the individual volume editors, as well as to the work of the General Editor, Ian Small. It is not simply the efficiency of publication of these volumes that is most important, however. One is also impressed with the quality of the volumes in this series. I have consistently been struck with the care and quality of work that has gone into preparing these editions, and this care and quality is no less evident in the latest volume in The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde.

Guy’s edition of Wilde’s criticism begins with a thoughtful discussion of her decision concerning what to include in a volume on Wilde’s criticism, given the large body of extant material that is essentially critical in nature. Guy argues effectively that the definition of Wilde’s criticism should be limited to those works that were clearly intended as statements of literary criticism, as opposed to Wilde’s numerous reviews, unfinished works (such as “The Portrait of Mr. W. H.”), and other miscellaneous writings of a critical nature. Working from this definition, Guy includes Wilde’s undergraduate essay “Historical Criticism” (commonly known as “The Rise of Historical Criticism”), the essays collected in Intentions (“Pen, Pencil, and Poison,” “The Decay of Lying,” “The Critic as Artist,” and “The Truth of Masks”), and “The Soul of Man” (commonly known as “The Soul of Man under Socialism”). Guy follows this discussion with an extended introduction in which she traces the genealogy (as best it can be reconstructed) of the composition process and publication history of the various essays that comprise this volume, as well as the context in which Wilde wrote them. This introduction is followed by a short comment on the method of textual collation she followed in arriving at the state of the essays in this volume. In addition, this book concludes with commentary (endnotes), a brief explanation of the philosophy underlying the commentary, and a brief appendix that contains a draft of Wilde’s review of Wyke Bayliss’s The Enchanted Island that appeared in the Pall Mall Gazette. This draft was part of the manuscript folios for “The Decay of Lying,” and Guy reasonably argues that Wilde might have planned to incorporate part of this review into “The Decay of Lying.” Since it is impossible to tell for certain, she appropriately includes this as an appendix.

Throughout her introduction, Guy presents clear, well-supported arguments for her views regarding the genealogy of the composition and publication history of Wilde’s criticism. Although information is often spotty, Guy reconstructs what appear to be likely scenarios of how these essays came about. She also does a good job of identifying the context in which Wilde wrote these essays, including their influences and, where possible, their reception by the reading public. Overall, Guy does a thorough job of introducing Wilde’s criticism. Her note on textual collation is similarly clear and well supported, although one might quibble with her decision not to change the order of a set of paragraphs in “The Soul of Man” as Wilde had requested be done in a letter to the editor of the Fortnightly Review. Her reasoning for not making that change is certainly reasonable, but there are also good reasons for having made the change. In any case, it is not an enviable choice...