Product Information
Lord Alfred Douglas' translation of Wilde's great play - originally written in French - with all well-known Beardsley illustrations, including suppressed plates. Features 20 Beardsley illustrations and an introduction by Robert Ross. Few works in English literature have so peculiar a history as Oscar Wilde's play Salome. Written originally in French in 1892 and ridiculed on its publication, translated into English by Lord Alfred Douglas ( Bosie himself) and again heaped with scorn, it has survived for 75 years, served as the text (in abridged form) for Richard Strauss' world-famous opera, and emerged as an acknowledged masterwork of the Aesthetic movement of fin de siecle England. The illustrations that Aubrey Beardsley prepared for the first English edition have no less strange a story. Beardsley liked neither the play nor its author. Yet, it inspired some of his finest work. It is an open question as to how suited the drawings actually are to the text that Wilde wrote. Yet, the two, the play and the Beardsley illustrations, have nevertheless become so identified with each other as to be inseparable. This edition reprints the first edition (1894) text, with A Note on 'Salome' by Robert Ross. The Beardsley drawings it superbly reproduces (mostly from a rare early portfolio) include not only the 10 full-page illustrations, the front and back cover designs, the title and List of Illustrations page decorations, and the cul de lampe from the original edition, but also three drawings that were not used, an alternate cover sketch, and the drawing entitled J'ai baise ta bouche, Iokanaan, which Beardsley did earlier for The Studio. Furthermore, all of the illustrations are reproduced in their original state, not as expurgated in the first and most subsequent editions.Product Identifiers
PublisherDover Publications Inc.
ISBN-139780486218304
eBay Product ID (ePID)89010723
Product Key Features
Book TitleSalome
AuthorAubrey Beardsley, Oscar Wilde
FormatPaperback
LanguageEnglish
TopicPlays
Publication Year1968
Dimensions
Item Height280mm
Item Width210mm
Additional Product Features
Title_AuthorOscar Wilde, Aubrey Beardsley
Series TitleDover Fine Art, History of Art
Country/Region of ManufactureUnited States