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A Critic in Pall Mall: Being Extracts from Reviews and Miscellanies

Oscar Wilde

The collection provides insight into Wilde's thoughts on notable literary figures such as John Keats, as well as broader artistic and philosophical topics.

"A Critic in Pall Mall: Being Extracts from Reviews and Miscellanies" by Oscar Wilde is a collection of essays and critiques. The collection provides insight into Wilde's thoughts on notable literary figures such as John Keats, as well as broader artistic and philosophical topics.

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As one enters Rome from the Via Ostiensis by the Porta San Paolo, the first object that meets the eye is a marble pyramid which stands close at hand on the left.

There are many Egyptian obelisks in Rome—tall, snakelike spires of red sandstone, mottled with strange writings, which remind us of the pillars of flame which led the children of Israel through the desert away from the land of the Pharaohs; but more wonderful than these to look upon is this gaunt, wedge-shaped pyramid standing here in this Italian city, unshattered amid the ruins and wrecks of time, looking older than the Eternal City itself, like terrible impassiveness turned to stone. And so in the Middle Ages men supposed this to be the sepulchre of Remus, who was slain by his own brother at the founding of the city, so ancient and mysterious it appears; but we have now, perhaps unfortunately, more accurate information about it, and know that it is the tomb of one Caius Cestius, a Roman gentleman of small note, who died about 30 b.c.

Yet though we cannot care much for the dead man who lies in lonely state beneath it, and who is only known to the world through his sepulchre, still this pyramid will be ever dear to the eyes of all English-speaking people, because at evening its shadows fall on the tomb of one who walks with Spenser, and Shakespeare, and Byron, and Shelley, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning in the great procession of the sweet singers of England.

Contents

  1. 01The Tomb of Keats (Irish Monthly, July 1877.)
  2. 02Keats’s Sonnet on Blue (Century Guild Hobby Horse, July 1886.)
  3. 03Dinners and Dishes (Pall Mall Gazette, March 7, 1885.)
  4. 04Shakespeare on Scenery (Dramatic Review, March 14, 1885.)
  5. 05Henry the Fourth at Oxford (Dramatic Review, May 23, 1885.)
  6. 06A Handbook to Marriage (Pall Mall Gazette, November 18, 1885.)
  7. 07To Read or Not to Read (Pall Mall Gazette, February 8, 1886.)
  8. 08The Letters of a Great Woman (Pall Mall Gazette, March 6, 1886.)
  9. 09Béranger in England (Pall Mall Gazette, April 21, 1886.)
  10. 10The Poetry of the People (Pall Mall Gazette, May 13, 1886.)
  11. 11The Cenci (Dramatic Review, May 15, 1886.)
  12. 12Balzac in English (Pall Mall Gazette, September 13, 1886.)
  13. 13Ben Jonson (Pall Mall Gazette, September 20, 1886.)
  14. 14Mr. Symonds’ History of the Renaissance (Pall Mall Gazette, November 10, 1886.)
  15. 15Mr. Morris’s Odyssey (Pall Mall Gazette, April 26, 1887.)
  16. 16Russian Novelists (Pall Mall Gazette, May 2, 1887.)
  17. 17Mr. Pater’s Imaginary Portraits (Pall Mall Gazette, June 11, 1887.)
  18. 18A German Princess (Woman’s World, November 1887.)
  19. 19A Village Tragedy
  20. 20Mr. Morris’s Completion of the Odyssey (Pall Mall Gazette, November 24, 1887.)
  21. 21Mrs. Somerville (Pall Mall Gazette, November 30, 1887.)
  22. 22Aristotle at Afternoon Tea (Pall Mall Gazette, December 16, 1887.)
  23. 23Early Christian Art in Ireland (Pall Mall Gazette, December 17, 1887.)
  24. 24Madame Ristori (Woman’s World, January 1888.)
  25. 25English Poetesses (Queen, December 8, 1888.)
  26. 26Venus or Victory (Pall Mall Gazette, February 24, 1888.)
  27. 27M. Caro on George Sand (Pall Mall Gazette, April 14, 1888.)
  28. 28A Fascinating Book (Woman’s World, November 1888.)
  29. 29Henley’s Poems (Woman’s World, December 1888.)
  30. 30Some Literary Ladies (Woman’s World, January 1889.)
  31. 31Poetry and Prison (Pall Mall Gazette, January 3, 1889.)
  32. 32The Gospel According to Walt Whitman (Pall Mall Gazette, January 25, 1889.)
  33. 33Irish Fairy Tales (Woman’s World, February 1889.)
  34. 34Mr. W. B. Yeats (Woman’s World, March 1889.)
  35. 35Mr. Yeats’s Wanderings of Oisin (Pall Mall Gazette, July 12, 1889.)
  36. 36Mr. William Morris’s Last Book (Pall Mall Gazette, March 2, 1889.)
  37. 37Some Literary Notes (Woman’s World, April 1889.)
  38. 38Mr. Swinburne’s Poems and Ballads (third series) (Pall Mall Gazette, June 27, 1889.)
  39. 39A Chinese Sage (Speaker, February 8, 1890.)
  40. 40Mr. Pater’s Appreciations (Speaker, March 22, 1890.)
  41. 41Sententiae (Extracted from Reviews)

About this edition

Author
Oscar Wilde
Era
Modern (c. 1800–1945)
Reading level
Advanced: for close, demanding reading
Formats
EPUB, PDF
Length
202 pages
This edition
Modern Philosophers