Oscar Wilde

An Idler's Impression

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The title page gives the work as Oscar Wilde: An Idler's Impression, by Edgar Saltus. The author tells of a Paris club where one man said to another "Well, what's up?" and the other shook a paper and said there is only one genius in England and they have put him in jail. The author says that Wilde, who was the least mystic of men, said in the "De Profundis," after weighing his disasters, "Of these things I am not yet worthy."

The author says he first met Wilde at Delmonico's, shortly after Wilde told the Customs that he had nothing to declare but genius. The author says Wilde was beautifully unmoved and was talking, at first about nothing whatever, then about "Vera," a play of his for which a local manager had offered him an advance, five thousand dollars he thinks. The author says Wilde lacked the art of never displeasing, which he calls in itself the whole secret of mediocrity, and that he can think of no better epitaph for him.

About the author

Edgar Saltus

Edgar Saltus (1855-1921) was an American writer known for elegant, cynical prose and a gloomy philosophy drawn from Schopenhauer. A fixture of literary New York in the Gilded Age, he produced novels, essays, and histories before turning to mysticism late in life.

More by Edgar Saltus

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Book facts

Author: Edgar Saltus
Pages: 10
Language: English
Genre: Memoir
Formats: PDF, EPUB, Read online