I Can Resist Everything Except Temptation: and Other Quotations from Oscar Wilde Book

Lovingly compiled by Karl Beckson from Oscar Wilde's plays, novels, essays, short fiction, and letters, I Can Resist Everything Except Temptation contains more than 1,000 examples of Wilde's famously pithy wit. All the familiar barbs are here--"Work is the curse of the drinking classes of this country"--as well as arch indictments of his age's prevailing style and mores. But the book contains more poignant examples of Wilde's bon mots as well--for instance, these lines on his own imprisonment: "This too I know--and wise it were/If each could know the same--/That every prison that men build/Is built with bricks of shame,/And bound with bars lest Christ should see/How men their brothers maim." Each entry includes a source citation, making this an excellent entry point for those unfamiliar with Wilde's work--and a pleasing interlude with an old friend for longtime Wilde fans.Read More