Intentions (ePub)

Intentions Initially published in 1891 when Wilde was at the peak of his writing career, these splendid articles on art, writing, literature, criticism, and society show the confident poseur's well-known mind and wide learning. The main representative of the English Esthetic development, Wilde promoted "art for art's sake" against critics who contended that art should dive into the morals of every human being. On each page of this assortment, the skilled artistic beautician splendidly exhibits not only the attributes of art are "distinction, charm, beauty, and imaginative power," in addition to that, criticism itself can be raised to a fine art having these very characteristics. In the initial article, Wilde regrets the " decay of Lying as an art, a science, and a social pleasure." He berates present-day artistic pragmatists like Henry James and Emile Zola for their " monstrous worship of facts" and smothering of the creative mind. What makes craftsmanship awesome, he says, is that it is "absolutely indifferent to fact, [art] invents, imagines, dreams, and keeps between herself and reality the impenetrable barrier of beautiful style, of decorative or ideal treatment. "The following article, "Pen, Pencil, and Poison," is an entrancing artistic enthusiasm for the existence of Thomas Griffiths Wainewright, a gifted painter, art critic, classicist, fellow of Charles Lamb, and - a murderer.