British Classics Book Club: Oscar Wilde (DRAKE HALL)
OSHR 4095“I can resist everything except temptation.” Oscar Wilde
Witty and sharp-eyed, Oscar Wilde is one of the most quotable authors to put pen to paper and remains one of the most dazzling figures of late Victorian literature. Wilde is best known for his comedic plays, Lady Windermere’s Fan and The Importance of Being Earnest, which shocked and fascinated audiences with his sparkle, his biting social satire, and his unforgettable one-liners. His novel The Picture of Dorian Grey explores darker, more decadent themes of beauty, corruption, and the cost of eternal youth.
To read Wilde is to encounter a writer who made the English language glitter, who mocked hypocrisy while defending beauty and love. His works are not just entertaining; they are windows into a man whose brilliance changed literature and whose tragedy reshaped history. To open Wilde’s plays or novel is to laugh, to think, and to mourn all at once.
This course meets once a month. There is no assigned reading for the first class.
- Class 1: No reading
- Class 2: Lady Windermere's Fan, any edition
- Class 3: The Importance of Being Earnest, any edition
- Class 4: The Picture of Dorian Grey, any edition
Abigayil Wernsman is an emerging scholar who recently received her PhD in literary arts from the University of Denver, with a focus on early medieval literature. While there, she studied Old English, early medieval Latin literature, and early English pedagogy. She earned her MA in Victorian literature from the University of Northern Colorado, with a focus on the Brontë sisters, and her BA in Victorian literature from CSU. She has taught a variety of British literature courses, poetry and writing classes, and Old English language classes. She is writing and researching a project on Beowulf and academic translation, as well as several side projects. She currently lives in Loveland with her husband and their fat little dog.
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Recommendations
- Lady Windermere's Fan, any edition
- The Importance of Being Earnest, any edition
- The Picture of Dorian Grey, any edition