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The Reckoning (Little Black Classics) by Edith Wharton
Wilde's celebrated witticisms on the dangers of sincerity, duplicitous biographers, the stupidity of the English - and his own genius.'It would be unfair to expect other people to be as remarkable as oneself'. - Oscar Wilde
Unknown Binding
First published March 3, 2016
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38373 people want to read
About the author
Oscar Wilde
5,894 books37.9k followersOscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and his criminal conviction for gross indecency for homosexual acts.
Wilde's parents were Anglo-Irish intellectuals in Dublin. In his youth, Wilde learned to speak fluent French and German. At university, he read Greats; he demonstrated himself to be an exceptional classicist, first at Trinity College Dublin, then at Magdalen College, Oxford. He became associated with the emerging philosophy of aestheticism, led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles.
Wilde tried his hand at various literary activities: he wrote a play, published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on "The English Renaissance" in art and interior decoration, and then returned to London where he lectured on his American travels and wrote reviews for various periodicals. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversational skill, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day. At the turn of the 1890s, he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into what would be his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). Wilde returned to drama, writing Salome (1891) in French while in Paris, but it was refused a licence for England due to an absolute prohibition on the portrayal of Biblical subjects on the English stage. Undiscouraged, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late-Victorian London.
At the height of his fame and success, while An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) were still being performed in London, Wilde issued a civil writ against John Sholto Douglas, the 9th Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel. The Marquess was the father of Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. The libel hearings unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and criminal prosecution for gross indecency with other males. The jury was unable to reach a verdict and so a retrial was ordered. In the second trial Wilde was convicted and sentenced to two years' hard labour, the maximum penalty, and was jailed from 1895 to 1897. During his last year in prison he wrote De Profundis (published posthumously in abridged form in 1905), a long letter that discusses his spiritual journey through his trials and is a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure. On the day of his release, he caught the overnight steamer to France, never to return to Britain or Ireland. In France and Italy, he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life.
Wilde's parents were Anglo-Irish intellectuals in Dublin. In his youth, Wilde learned to speak fluent French and German. At university, he read Greats; he demonstrated himself to be an exceptional classicist, first at Trinity College Dublin, then at Magdalen College, Oxford. He became associated with the emerging philosophy of aestheticism, led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles.
Wilde tried his hand at various literary activities: he wrote a play, published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on "The English Renaissance" in art and interior decoration, and then returned to London where he lectured on his American travels and wrote reviews for various periodicals. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversational skill, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day. At the turn of the 1890s, he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into what would be his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). Wilde returned to drama, writing Salome (1891) in French while in Paris, but it was refused a licence for England due to an absolute prohibition on the portrayal of Biblical subjects on the English stage. Undiscouraged, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late-Victorian London.
At the height of his fame and success, while An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) were still being performed in London, Wilde issued a civil writ against John Sholto Douglas, the 9th Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel. The Marquess was the father of Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. The libel hearings unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and criminal prosecution for gross indecency with other males. The jury was unable to reach a verdict and so a retrial was ordered. In the second trial Wilde was convicted and sentenced to two years' hard labour, the maximum penalty, and was jailed from 1895 to 1897. During his last year in prison he wrote De Profundis (published posthumously in abridged form in 1905), a long letter that discusses his spiritual journey through his trials and is a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure. On the day of his release, he caught the overnight steamer to France, never to return to Britain or Ireland. In France and Italy, he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 3,759 reviews
October 8, 2016
Like if Oscar Wilde had Twitter.
December 23, 2017
Oscar Wilde is funny as he is clever and arrogant. I may have fallen in love with him.
June 10, 2022
rip oscar wilde you would've loved taylor swift and phoebe bridgers
November 16, 2023
so, gay people are just built like this?
July 22, 2022
3.5 ig this is what gina linetti meant when she said “turn my tweets into a book”
Read
July 25, 2021there is NO WAY this man is a libra??? he’s the most leo person that ever existed
May 27, 2022
I’m a whore for Oscar Wilde
April 19, 2022
Mr. Wilde, you pretentious, and arrogant man, I love you.
June 18, 2022
i had some nice chuckles while reading this piece
February 12, 2023
the only dream i have from now on is to be someone oscar wilde would approve of
September 4, 2022
rip oscar wilde bestie would have loved twitter
May 24, 2016
Pure genius. This is something you should read again and again throughout your life.
July 27, 2017
(tearfully) I did it.
Book 3 of BookTube-a-thon is complete!! Prompt: Read an entire book outside.
I literally hated every second of it. The being-outside, not the book. Nature is the worst. I got quite truly eaten alive by bugs, and I'm of the firm belief that if you get bitten by something then you should turn into something cool. When you get bitten by a vampire, you become a vampire. When you get bitten by a radioactive exotic spider in a lab, because the spider escaped its cage/prison even though the #1 priority of the scientists who work there should be to keep that spooky lil thing in its cage, ESPECIALLY WHEN THERE IS A FIELD TRIP IN THE VERY SAME ROOM, you become Spiderman.
The only change I've noticed is I'm itchy. At least now I'm indoors, thank God.
Things that made it an easier task:
-this book is straight up 52 pages long
-Oscar Wilde has some great somewhat-anti-nature quotes, including "My own experience is that the more we study art, the less we care for nature...Art is our spirited protest, our gallant attempt to teach Nature her proper place"
-that made me feel awesome while participating in the very art-centric activity of reading a book of Oscar Wilde quotes.
Anyway. This book is great, it has the best title of all time (I honestly bought it for the title) and I'm so excited to get workin' on my Complete Works of Oscar Wilde collection now.
I probably won't do it for 18 months, but still.
This guy is very quotable and I very much enjoyed reading this. There were a few quotes that made me feel, like, "How did this get in here?" But for the most part it is great.
Bottom line: Very fun and quick and impressive and short and beautiful. (But also I can't give 5 stars to a book of quotes.)
I will leave you with a quote that made me laugh out loud:
"Oh, it is indeed a burning shame that there would be one law for men and another law for women. I think that there should be no law for anybody.
------------------------
Attempting to complete the "Read an entire book outside" prompt for BookTube-a-thon.
I'm having a bad time.
Book 3 of BookTube-a-thon is complete!! Prompt: Read an entire book outside.
I literally hated every second of it. The being-outside, not the book. Nature is the worst. I got quite truly eaten alive by bugs, and I'm of the firm belief that if you get bitten by something then you should turn into something cool. When you get bitten by a vampire, you become a vampire. When you get bitten by a radioactive exotic spider in a lab, because the spider escaped its cage/prison even though the #1 priority of the scientists who work there should be to keep that spooky lil thing in its cage, ESPECIALLY WHEN THERE IS A FIELD TRIP IN THE VERY SAME ROOM, you become Spiderman.
The only change I've noticed is I'm itchy. At least now I'm indoors, thank God.
Things that made it an easier task:
-this book is straight up 52 pages long
-Oscar Wilde has some great somewhat-anti-nature quotes, including "My own experience is that the more we study art, the less we care for nature...Art is our spirited protest, our gallant attempt to teach Nature her proper place"
-that made me feel awesome while participating in the very art-centric activity of reading a book of Oscar Wilde quotes.
Anyway. This book is great, it has the best title of all time (I honestly bought it for the title) and I'm so excited to get workin' on my Complete Works of Oscar Wilde collection now.
I probably won't do it for 18 months, but still.
This guy is very quotable and I very much enjoyed reading this. There were a few quotes that made me feel, like, "How did this get in here?" But for the most part it is great.
Bottom line: Very fun and quick and impressive and short and beautiful. (But also I can't give 5 stars to a book of quotes.)
I will leave you with a quote that made me laugh out loud:
"Oh, it is indeed a burning shame that there would be one law for men and another law for women. I think that there should be no law for anybody.
------------------------
Attempting to complete the "Read an entire book outside" prompt for BookTube-a-thon.
I'm having a bad time.
October 11, 2021
i really need to start making notes of my random thoughts so someone can turn them into a book in 100 years
April 4, 2022
this was like reading oscar’s twitter feed. some hits, some misses, enjoyable overall
May 31, 2017
Wilde would be the king of Twitter.
December 27, 2022
as someone who believes morning people are a myth, the title of this is my manifesto
February 23, 2023
My grandmother had several hilarious sayings that she would trot out whenever appropriate (e.g., "I can resist anything but temptation;" "Nobody has as much fun as people.") I always thought she was one of the funniest people on earth and then found out she had cribbed most of her best shots from Oscar Wilde. This little black book is a collection of his bon mots, a good reference work if you wish to appear witty and perceptive until somebody else gets hold of the book in which case you'll be so busted. Like my grandmother.
August 15, 2023
Only Dull People Are Brilliant at Breakfast* Is a lively collection of quotes, witticisms and meaningful thoughts by the wonderful mind of Oscar Wilde.
Many of these quotations will make you stop and think, a bit like a work of a Seneca, but as Oscar was obviously no Stoic, you’ll encounter quotes that will make you laugh and some you may even find preposterous. But that is the joy of this book.
It’s Oscar Wilde – naked.
Three of my favourites:
"High hopes were once formed by democracy; but democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people"
"To recommend thrift to the poor is both grotesque and insulting. It is like advising a man who is starving to eat less"
"Children begin by loving their parents. After a time they judge them. Rarely, if ever, do they forgive them".
That last one punched me in the stomach.
If you decide to read this, I bet there will he moments you’ll stop and think or shake your head, or laugh – it will certainly make you pause.
What a guy.
4 Stars
*I needed the title explained to me. Yes....I know.
Many of these quotations will make you stop and think, a bit like a work of a Seneca, but as Oscar was obviously no Stoic, you’ll encounter quotes that will make you laugh and some you may even find preposterous. But that is the joy of this book.
It’s Oscar Wilde – naked.
Three of my favourites:
"High hopes were once formed by democracy; but democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people"
"To recommend thrift to the poor is both grotesque and insulting. It is like advising a man who is starving to eat less"
"Children begin by loving their parents. After a time they judge them. Rarely, if ever, do they forgive them".
That last one punched me in the stomach.
If you decide to read this, I bet there will he moments you’ll stop and think or shake your head, or laugh – it will certainly make you pause.
What a guy.
4 Stars
*I needed the title explained to me. Yes....I know.
April 8, 2022
“when a man has once loved a woman, he will do anything for her, except continue to love her.” oscar wilde u would have loved tumblr
January 7, 2024
Brilliant!!!
I might add some quotes here, but i highlighted the whole book, so let's see 😭
I might add some quotes here, but i highlighted the whole book, so let's see 😭
September 22, 2019
Wilde a this wittiest. I like that this collection of quotes and wit has a nice mix of ironic statements and points that are actually rather serious and pertinent.
August 8, 2022
oscar wilde was such a cunt (fondly)
May 25, 2023
basically one night Wilde had too much wine and decide to casually drop this fucking banger.
i don’t have a physical copy of this to annotate so instead I’ll enlighten you:
“a critic should be taught to criticize a work of art without making any reference to the personality of the author. this, in fact, is the beginning of criticism.” a possible reference to the media distaste/outrage towards “the picture of dorian grey”
“you forget that a thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.” talking about religion?
“Education is an admirable thing. But it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.”
“For what is Truth? In matters of religion, it is simply the opinion that has survived. In matters of science, it is the ultimate sensation. In matters of art, it is one's last mood.”
“There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.” another reference to the media’s reaction to his work. also this is so fucking true
“Oh, it is indeed a burning shame that there would be one law for men and another law for women. I think that there should be no law for anybody.”
“After the first glass, you see things as you wish they were. After the second, you see things as they are not. Finally you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world.”
“my existence is a scandal” a more direct reference
“Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.”
“Praise makes me humble, but when I am abused I know I have touched the stars.”
“i love acting. it is so much more real that life”
“To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.”
“I never approve, or disapprove, of anything now. It is an absurd attitude to take towards life. We are not sent into the world to air our moral prejudices.”
“The things one feels absolutely certain about are never true. That is the fatality of Faith, and the lesson of Romance.”
“Children begin by loving their parents. After a time they judge them. Rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.”
“One can live for years sometimes without living at all, and then all life comes crowding into one single hour.”
“Are there not books that can make us live more in one single hour than life can make us live in a score of shameful years?”
“One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry.”
“The proper basis for marriage is a mutual misunder-standing.”
“Married life is merely a habit, a bad habit.”
“Why is it that one runs to one's ruin? Why has destruction such a fascination?”
“One needs misfortunes to live happily.”
“To live in happiness, you must know some unhappiness in life.”
“What fire does not destroy, it hardens.”
“I adore simple pleasures. They are the last refuge of the complex.”
“It would be unfair to expect other people to be as remarkable as oneself.”
every single line in this book is fucking genius so you bet I wanted to put it all in here.
i don’t have a physical copy of this to annotate so instead I’ll enlighten you:
“a critic should be taught to criticize a work of art without making any reference to the personality of the author. this, in fact, is the beginning of criticism.” a possible reference to the media distaste/outrage towards “the picture of dorian grey”
“you forget that a thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.” talking about religion?
“Education is an admirable thing. But it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.”
“For what is Truth? In matters of religion, it is simply the opinion that has survived. In matters of science, it is the ultimate sensation. In matters of art, it is one's last mood.”
“There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.” another reference to the media’s reaction to his work. also this is so fucking true
“Oh, it is indeed a burning shame that there would be one law for men and another law for women. I think that there should be no law for anybody.”
“After the first glass, you see things as you wish they were. After the second, you see things as they are not. Finally you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world.”
“my existence is a scandal” a more direct reference
“Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.”
“Praise makes me humble, but when I am abused I know I have touched the stars.”
“i love acting. it is so much more real that life”
“To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.”
“I never approve, or disapprove, of anything now. It is an absurd attitude to take towards life. We are not sent into the world to air our moral prejudices.”
“The things one feels absolutely certain about are never true. That is the fatality of Faith, and the lesson of Romance.”
“Children begin by loving their parents. After a time they judge them. Rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.”
“One can live for years sometimes without living at all, and then all life comes crowding into one single hour.”
“Are there not books that can make us live more in one single hour than life can make us live in a score of shameful years?”
“One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry.”
“The proper basis for marriage is a mutual misunder-standing.”
“Married life is merely a habit, a bad habit.”
“Why is it that one runs to one's ruin? Why has destruction such a fascination?”
“One needs misfortunes to live happily.”
“To live in happiness, you must know some unhappiness in life.”
“What fire does not destroy, it hardens.”
“I adore simple pleasures. They are the last refuge of the complex.”
“It would be unfair to expect other people to be as remarkable as oneself.”
every single line in this book is fucking genius so you bet I wanted to put it all in here.
December 31, 2022
A silly goofy mood of a book
October 28, 2022
This is a collection of quotes by one of the wittiest humans ever!
"The aim of love is to love: no more, and no less."
Oh, how I wish I had Oscar Wilde as my bosom friend! There would have been no dull moment in my life.
Some of my favorite quotes:
"Pleasure is the only thing one should live for. Nothing ages like happiness."
"Nothing is worth doing except what the world says is impossible."
"Those who see any difference between soul and body have neither."
"Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live."
"All love is a tragedy."
"The aim of love is to love: no more, and no less."
Oh, how I wish I had Oscar Wilde as my bosom friend! There would have been no dull moment in my life.
Some of my favorite quotes:
"Pleasure is the only thing one should live for. Nothing ages like happiness."
"Nothing is worth doing except what the world says is impossible."
"Those who see any difference between soul and body have neither."
"Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live."
"All love is a tragedy."
June 29, 2022
second time reading this masterpiece because it is the most mind opening book i’ve ever read
May 1, 2020
Initially, I thought this was going to be a piece of short prose by Wilde and was surprised I couldn't find it in any collections of his works. So I bought the thankfully cheap e-book. It turned out to be a collection of Oscar Wilde's quotes and aphorisms.
It was a pleasant reading experience. Wilde's thoughts are often expressed in a witty and/or provoking manner, and you have to pause to consider the actual meaning behind the amusing phrase. I like his style, and this collection was the pure essence of it.
Since I read 3 of his plays almost back to back with this short piece, I recognized a lot of the quotes. Still, I think it's a huge drawback this ebook didn't state where the quotes came from. It was sometimes difficult to tell if the phrase was said by Wilde himself, or by one of the characters in his fiction - and that's the kind of thing I want to be able to distinguish.
It was a pleasant reading experience. Wilde's thoughts are often expressed in a witty and/or provoking manner, and you have to pause to consider the actual meaning behind the amusing phrase. I like his style, and this collection was the pure essence of it.
Since I read 3 of his plays almost back to back with this short piece, I recognized a lot of the quotes. Still, I think it's a huge drawback this ebook didn't state where the quotes came from. It was sometimes difficult to tell if the phrase was said by Wilde himself, or by one of the characters in his fiction - and that's the kind of thing I want to be able to distinguish.
January 10, 2023
I want the entirety of this book tattooed on my body.
October 1, 2024
to było najszybsze pięć gwiazdek w historii i nie przyjmuję krytyki wobec tej książki (Oscar pokochałbyś Twittera)
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