In this engaging and provocative reading of the relations between two canonical Anglo-American authors and the aesthetic culture they helped create, Michele Mendelssohn challenges critical assumptions about the way Aestheticism responded to anxieties about nationality, sexuality, identity, influence, originality and morality. This book, the first fully sustained reading of Henry James's and Oscar Wilde's relationship, reveals why the antagonisms between both authors are symptomatic of the cultural oppositions within Aestheticism itself. The book also shows how these conflicting energies animated the late nineteenth century's most exciting transatlantic cultural enterprise. Richly illustrated and historically detailed, this study of James's and Wilde's intricate, decades-long relationship brings to light Aestheticism's truly transatlantic nature through close readings of both authors' works, as well as nineteenth-century art, periodicals and rare manuscripts. As Mendelssohn shows, both authors were deeply influenced by the visual and decorative arts, and by contemporary artists such as George Du Maurier and James McNeill Whistler. Henry James, Oscar Wilde and Aesthetic Culture offers a nuanced reading of a complex relationship that promises to transform the way in which we imagine late nineteenth-century British and American literary culture. Key Features * The first study devoted exclusively to Wilde and James, who are the most important Irish and American nineteenth-century authors * Rewrites standard assumptions about James's and Wilde's relationship and traces its implications for British and American Aestheticism * Redefines Aestheticism and offers full re-readings of late nineteenth-century literature, visual and material culture, theatre, as well as psychology and sexual identity * Refers to several previously unpublished letters by Henry James
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最让我印象深刻的是作者处理历史人物性格的细腻笔触。他们笔下的詹姆斯和王尔德,绝非教科书上被扁平化的雕像,而是充满了矛盾、挣扎与复杂人性的鲜活个体。作者没有回避他们光环背后的阴影和不为人知的妥协,而是以一种既尊重又批判的姿态去审视他们的选择。阅读这些深入到个人层面的剖析时,我产生了一种强烈的共情——这些伟大人物,也曾为世俗的眼光、创作的瓶颈和内心的冲突而辗转反侧。这种对“人”的关注,使得整本书的情感厚度大大增加,不再是冷冰冰的理论堆砌,而是充满温度的对人类创造力极限的探索。
评分作为一个对十九世纪末期社会风气极为好奇的爱好者,这本书为我提供了前所未有的深度。我原以为我对那个时代的了解已经足够多了,但作者通过细致入微的文献考证,揭示了“美学运动”背后的社会张力与阶级焦虑。书中对贵族阶层如何试图通过艺术品味来构建自我身份,以及这种追求如何与新兴资产阶级的实用主义产生冲突的描绘,极其生动。我仿佛能“看”到那些身着华服的绅士淑女们,在讨论一朵郁金香的完美弧度时,内心深处对社会地位不稳固的微妙恐惧。这种将文学理论与社会心理学完美融合的叙事方式,极大地拓展了我对那个时代的认知边界。
评分这本书的行文节奏控制得非常出色,它并非一条直线叙事,而是在不同人物和主题之间进行优雅的跳跃和回响,颇具音乐般的韵律感。有时候,它像一段悠扬的大提琴独奏,深入探讨某个哲学思辨的角落;下一刻,它又会转为轻快的钢琴小品,描绘某位作家一次充满机锋的午餐辩论。这种结构上的灵动性,有效地避免了主题过于沉重可能带来的阅读疲劳。每一次从一个章节过渡到下一个,都像音乐的变奏,让人保持着高度的期待感,总想知道作者接下来会用哪种“音色”来诠释下一组文学现象。这种精心设计的阅读旅程,体现了作者极高的文学素养。
评分这本书的切入角度非常新颖,它并没有落入那种枯燥的学术论文窠臼,而是以一种近乎散文诗的笔调,将几位文学巨匠的生平轶事与他们所处的文化浪潮编织在一起。我惊喜地发现,作者在描述那些复杂的审美理论时,并没有使用晦涩难懂的术语,而是巧妙地融入了大量的历史背景和个人化的观察,使得即便是初次接触这些概念的读者,也能轻松跟上思路。阅读过程中,我多次停下来,思考作者是如何将那些看似不相关的元素,如一个特定的室内装饰风格、一场上流社会的沙龙聚会,与核心的文学主张联系起来的,那种精妙的联结感让人拍案叫绝,感觉自己不仅仅是在读文学史,更像是在参与一场跨越时空的文化解码游戏。
评分这本书的装帧和印刷质量简直是一场视觉的享受,厚实的封面,精美的字体排版,每一页都散发着一种经得起时间考验的质感。光是捧着它,就能感受到一种沉浸式的阅读体验,仿佛穿越回那个维多利亚时代,空气中弥漫着咖啡和雪茄的味道。我尤其欣赏那些细微的排版处理,比如页边距的留白,字体大小的调整,都恰到好处地烘托了内容的厚重感,让人在阅读时感到无比的舒适与专注。这不仅仅是一本书,更像是一件工艺品,值得摆放在书架上细细品味。对于追求阅读体验的同好来说,光是这一点就足以让人心动。
评分The long-term intellectual flirtation between the transatlantic pair: a media-savvy, social maneuvering, impellingly sensual yet self-pretentious young man and the frozen heartless, internationally acclaimed but rarely read master of the art of fiction.
评分The long-term intellectual flirtation between the transatlantic pair: a media-savvy, social maneuvering, impellingly sensual yet self-pretentious young man and the frozen heartless, internationally acclaimed but rarely read master of the art of fiction.
评分A very nuanced problematisation on the one-way-street understanding of James-Wilde relationship---the dynamics of Anglo-American Aestheticism is paradoxically bred out of the rupture, the antagonism, the heterogeneity of feelings.
评分The long-term intellectual flirtation between the transatlantic pair: a media-savvy, social maneuvering, impellingly sensual yet self-pretentious young man and the frozen heartless, internationally acclaimed but rarely read master of the art of fiction.
评分A very nuanced problematisation on the one-way-street understanding of James-Wilde relationship---the dynamics of Anglo-American Aestheticism is paradoxically bred out of the rupture, the antagonism, the heterogeneity of feelings.
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