Editing Oscar Wilde (section)

=== Essays and dialogues {{anchor|Wilde's fictions}} ===
{{Main|The Soul of Man under Socialism|The Decay of Lying|The Critic as Artist}}
[[File:Oscar Wilde (Boston Public Library).jpg|thumb|upright|Sheet music cover, 1880s]]
Wilde, having tired of journalism, had been busy setting out his aesthetic ideas more fully in a series of longer prose pieces which were published in the major literary-intellectual journals of the day. In January 1889, ''The Decay of Lying: A Dialogue'' appeared in ''[[The Nineteenth Century]]'', and ''Pen, Pencil and Poison'', a satirical biography of [[Thomas Griffiths Wainewright]], in ''[[The Fortnightly Review]]'', edited by Wilde's friend [[Frank Harris]].{{sfn|Mason|1972|p=71}} Two of Wilde's four writings on aesthetics are dialogues: though Wilde had evolved professionally from lecturer to writer, he retained an oral tradition of sorts. Having always excelled as a wit and raconteur, he often composed by assembling phrases, ''bons mots'' and witticisms into a longer, cohesive work.{{sfn|Raby|1997|p=98}}

Wilde was concerned about the effect of moralising on art; he believed in art's redemptive, developmental powers: "Art is individualism, and individualism is a disturbing and disintegrating force. There lies its immense value. For what it seeks is to disturb monotony of type, slavery of custom, tyranny of habit, and the reduction of man to the level of a machine."<ref name="soulofman">Wilde, O. ''The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde'', Collins.</ref> In his only political text, ''The Soul of Man Under Socialism'', he argued political conditions should establish this primacy – private property should be abolished, and cooperation should be substituted for competition. He wrote "Socialism, Communism, or whatever one chooses to call it, by converting private property into public wealth, and substituting co-operation for competition, will restore society to its proper condition of a thoroughly healthy organism, and insure the material well-being of each member of the community. It will, in fact, give Life its proper basis and its proper environment". At the same time, he stressed that the government most amenable to artists was no government at all. Wilde envisioned a society where mechanisation has freed human effort from the burden of necessity, effort which can instead be expended on artistic creation. [[George Orwell]] summarised, "In effect, the world will be populated by artists, each striving after perfection in the way that seems best to him."<ref>Orwell, George [https://web.archive.org/web/20160120071748/http://www.geocities.jp/mickindex/orwell/orwell_ROW_en.html Review: The Soul of Man under Socialism by Oscar Wilde] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170329102905/http://www.geocities.jp/mickindex/orwell/orwell_ROW_en.html |date=29 March 2017}} ''[[The Observer]]'', 8 May 1948. Retrieved 28 September 2010.</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde Volume IV: Criticism: Historical Criticism, Intentions, The Soul of Man |date=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=233}}</ref>

This point of view did not align him with [[Fabian Society|the Fabians]], intellectual socialists who advocated using state apparatus to change social conditions, nor did it endear him to the monied classes whom he had previously entertained.{{sfn|Kiberd|1996|loc=Ch. 2}}<ref name="Pearsonxi">Pearson, H. ''Essays of Oscar Wilde'' London: Meuthen & Co (1950: xi) Catalogue no: 5328/u</ref> [[Hesketh Pearson]], introducing a collection of Wilde's essays in 1950, remarked how ''The Soul of Man Under Socialism'' had been an inspirational text for revolutionaries in Tsarist Russia but laments that [[Russia#Soviet Russia|in the Stalinist era]] "it is doubtful whether there are any uninspected places in which it could now be hidden".<ref name="Pearsonxi" />

{{quote box
| width = 27%
| align = right
| quote = Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
| source = —From "[[The Critic as Artist]]" published in ''Intentions'' (1891)<ref>{{cite book |title=Masks in Modern Drama |date=1984 |publisher=University of California Press |page=157}}</ref>
}}
Wilde considered including this pamphlet and "[[The Portrait of Mr. W. H.]]", his essay-story on Shakespeare's sonnets, in a new anthology in 1891, but eventually decided to limit it to purely aesthetic subjects. ''Intentions'' packaged revisions of four essays: ''The Decay of Lying''; ''Pen, Pencil and Poison''; ''The Truth of Masks'' (first published 1885); and ''The Critic as Artist'' in two parts.{{sfn|Mason|1972|pp=355–357}} For Pearson the biographer, the essays and dialogues exhibit every aspect of Wilde's genius and character: wit, romancer, talker, lecturer, humanist and scholar and concludes that "no other productions of his have as varied an appeal".<ref>Pearson, H. ''Essays of Oscar Wilde'' London: Meuthen & Co (1950: x) Catalogue no: 5328/u</ref> 1891 turned out to be Wilde's ''[[annus mirabilis]]''; apart from his three collections he also produced his only novel.<ref>{{cite book |title=Wilde Writings: Contextual Conditions |date=2003 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |page=86}}</ref>