Jerusha Mccormack: Wilde's Fiction

2- Jerusha McCormack, “Wilde’s Fiction” from the Cambridge companion to Oscar Wilde
In ‘Wilde’s Fiction’ written by Jerusha McCormack, the author starts her essay examining Oscar Wilde’s life and origins. The Artist, born and schooled in Ireland became a writer in England where he lived as a queer kind of Irishman. He studied in Oxford where he challenged himself beating the great scholars he met; later on, he acquired the title of an English aristocrat and made himself over as a dandy, a fine well-dressed man, who can also be known as a quite self-concerned person. Oscar Wilde, was also particularly famous for his quips, examining the drafts of his plays in fact, he used to open his works with jokes and witty phrases, his aphorisms became popular very soon and this could happen especially because he used the language of his audience, the language of common double-talk. The author of the essay, Jerusha McCormack, proceeds her argument analyzing the gospel according to Wilde, the artist in fact, was very interested and fascinated by the Bible that decided to rewrite it completely. He was moreover a brilliant student of Classical literature and his time at Oxford gave him also the possibility to study the New Testament. He intentionally structured most of his prose poems like parables, but his biggest dream was ‘to write the Epic of the Cross, the lliad of Christianity, which shall live for all time’. (‘Oscar Wilde’, in Oscar Wilde: Interviews and

The protagonist is not concerned with anything but himself and his appearance; he leads an easy life, made of parties and women. In the preface of the book we can find for instance, an accurate quote which defines Dorian Grey as an absolute