The Portrait of MR W.H.: Annotated Edition

By Oscar Wilde

Book Overview

Only edition in print

During a conversation about literary forgeries, Erskine tells his young guest that he has received - as a legacy from a friend, the Cambridge scholar Cyril Graham - what is purported to be an Elizabethan portrait. The painting depicts a beautiful young man in late-sixteenth-century costume, whom Graham claimed to be Willie Hughes, a boy-actor serving in Shakespeare's company. This prompts Erskine's guest to delve deeper into the mystery surrounding the real identity of the dedicatee and the inspiration of Shakespeare's Sonnets, with unforeseen consequences.

Far from being a dry exposition of a literary theory, The Portrait of Mr W.H. - which the author himself described as one of his "early masterpieces" - is an engaging and entertaining narrative exploring the intricate facets of trust and betrayal, historical truth and fiction, written with Wilde's trademark dialogical sharpness and stylistic perfection.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1847497519
• ISBN13: 9781847497512
• Release Date: November 2018
• Publisher: Alma Books
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.1" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Wilde's Interesting Proposal on the Mystery of W.H.

Wilde's The Portrait of Mr W.H., is an interesting account of the mystery of W.H., the person Shakespeare devoted his famous Sonnets. When one reads Wilde's prose, one can actually feel his thoughts and feelings. As critic and author, Peter Ackroyd, comments: `This is quintessential Wilde, introducing paradox into the realm of speculation and wit into the sphere of art.' Most English 19th century intellectuals were sincerely obsessed with Shakespeare's Sonnets, because it is the bard's notions on love, art, beauty and what it really means to be an artist. Rather than spoil the plot, let me just say that the book covers Aestheticism, Literary Criticism and obsession with `literature' which can, in some cases, be worse than opium addiction. If one has any interest in the Aesthetic movement of that period will find this novella fascinating. As is well known, Elizabethian England did not allow women to act on the stage as it was viewed as improper for a lady. Thus male actor's had to play the female roles. It is the protagonists thesis that the mysterious W.H. was a male actor who performed most of Shakespear's female roles, thus the Sonnets, and the proposal that the Bard had a particular fascination with the young actor. The Portrait of Mr. W.H. was written over a time period of a few years, the final draft finished by Wilde while he was incarcerated in the Reading Gaol. This final manuscript disappeared for many years to then turn up in a personal collection. This short piece is recommended to all those interested in Wilde and the 19th century Aesthetic movement.

Passions about Shakespeare in 19c London.

This little book is about Shakespeare's sonnets, but more than that it is a book about nineteenth-century young men and their obsession with Shakespeare. Two in particular become completely engaged by a particular literary interpretation--that Shakespeare wrote his beautiful sonnets not for a wealthy patron, but to his Rosalind, or rather to the actor who played all his lovely strong women--that is, to an adolescent boy. The book is a cautionary tale about heightened involvement in literary ideas. A literary idea can possess one as completely as opium, and can be just as dangerous