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127-535: Andrea Sperelli is a young noble dandy of Rome who lives in Palazzo Zuccari ( Trinità dei Monti ), although he is originally from Abruzzo . He loves Elena Muti, although she is married to another. Andrea fights a duel with a rival for the affections of yet another married woman, but gets injured, and taken to Francavilla al Mare , where, at Villa Schifanoja, he meets the beautiful Maria Ferres. Andrea, when cured, realizes that he loves both Maria and Elena. At

254-524: A scholarship by competitive examination in his second and, in his finals, won the Berkeley Gold Medal in Greek, the university's highest academic award. He was encouraged to compete for a demyship , a half-scholarship worth £95 per year (equivalent to £11,100 in 2023), at Magdalen College, Oxford , which he won easily. At Magdalen, he read Greats from 1874 to 1878. He applied to join

381-584: A Victorian Dandy (1998) reimagines one day in the life of a dandy in Victorian England, through which the author challenges conventional Victorian depictions of race, class, and British identity by depicting the Victorian dandy as Black, surrounded by white servants. By reversing concepts of the Victorian master-servant relationship, by rewriting stereotypings of the Victorian dandy to include Black masculinities, and by positioning his dandy figure as

508-697: A bachelor in London. The 1881 British Census listed Wilde as a boarder at 1 (now 44) Tite Street , Chelsea, where Frank Miles , a society painter, was the head of the household. Lillie Langtry was introduced to Wilde at Frank Miles' studio in 1877. The most glamorous woman in England, Langtry assumed great importance to Wilde during his early years in London, and they remained close friends for many years; he tutored her in Latin and later encouraged her to pursue acting. She wrote in her autobiography that he "possessed

635-676: A bunch of altar lilies instead. Wilde did retain a lifelong interest in Catholic theology and liturgy. While at Magdalen College, Wilde became well known for his role in the aesthetic and decadent movements . He wore his hair long, openly scorned "manly" sports – though he occasionally boxed  – and decorated his rooms with peacock feathers, lilies, sunflowers , blue china and other objets d'art . He entertained lavishly, and once remarked to some friends, "I find it harder and harder every day to live up to my blue china." The line spread famously; aesthetes adopted it as

762-413: A crucial element in maintaining social boundaries and individual status." This process "creates a market for new social models, with the dandy as a prime example of how individuals navigate and resist the pressures of a capitalist society." Here, another paradoxical relation between dandyism and capitalism emerges: dandyism's emphasis on individuality and on forming an idiomatic sense of style can be read as

889-440: A dance in their home at Drumacon, Co Cavan . One of the sisters had brushed against the flames of a fire or a candelabra and her dress caught fire; in various versions, the man she was dancing with carried her and her sister down to douse the flames in the snow, or her sister ran her down the stairs and rolled her in the snow, causing her own muslin dress to catch fire too. Until his early twenties, Wilde summered at Moytura House,

1016-543: A dark-blue coat of plain style. Sartorially, the look of Brummell's tailoring was perfectly fitted, clean, and displayed much linen; an elaborately knotted cravat completed the aesthetics of Brummell's suite of clothes . During the mid-1790s, the handsome Beau Brummell became a personable man-about-town in Regency London 's high society , who was famous for being famous and celebrated "based on nothing at all" but personal charm and social connections. During

1143-676: A family to support, in mid-1887 Wilde became the editor of The Lady's World magazine, his name prominent on the cover. He promptly renamed it as The Woman's World and raised its tone, adding serious articles on parenting, culture, and politics, while keeping discussions of fashion and arts. Two pieces of fiction were usually included, one to be read to children, the other for adult readers. Wilde worked hard to solicit good contributions from his wide artistic acquaintance, including those of Lady Wilde and his wife, Constance, while his own "Literary and Other Notes" were themselves popular and amusing. The initial vigour and excitement which he brought to

1270-532: A febrile illness. His poem " Requiescat " was written in her memory; the first stanza reads: Tread lightly, she is near Under the snow Speak gently, she can hear The daisies grow. Until he was nine Wilde was educated at home, where a French nursemaid and a German governess taught him their languages. He joined his brother Willie at Portora Royal School in Enniskillen , County Fermanagh, which he attended from 1864 to 1871. At Portora, although he

1397-719: A full-page reprint in the Lady's Pictorial . ... When the National Republican discussed Wilde, it was to explain 'a few items as to the animal's pedigree.' And on 22 January 1882, the Washington Post illustrated the Wild Man of Borneo alongside Oscar Wilde of England and asked 'How far is it from this to this?'" When he visited San Francisco, the San Francisco Chronicle reported, "The city

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1524-508: A lace-collar, a lace-placket, and lace-cuffs in a portrait of himself in Albanian national costume in 1813; Count d'Orsay (Alfred Guillaume Gabriel Grimod d'Orsay, 1801–1852), himself a prominent figure in upper-class social circles and an acquaintance of Lord Byron, likewise embodied the spirit of dandyism within elite British society. In chapter "The Dandiacal Body" of the novel Sartor Resartus (Carlyle, 1831), Thomas Carlyle described

1651-459: A little pony; / He stuck a feather in his hat, / And called it Macoroni … ." and chorus: "Yankee Doodle, keep it up, / Yankee Doodle Dandy, / Mind the music and the step, / And with the girls be handy … ." derided the rustic manner and perceived poverty of colonial American. The lyrics, particularly the reference to "stuck a feather in his hat" and "called it Macoroni ," suggested that adorning fashionable attire (a fine horse and gold-braided clothing)

1778-597: A long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life. Oscar Wilde was born at 21 Westland Row , Dublin (now home of the Oscar Wilde Centre , Trinity College), the second of three children born to an Anglo-Irish couple: Jane, née Elgee , and Sir William Wilde . Oscar was two years younger than his brother, William (Willie) Wilde . Jane Wilde was a niece (by marriage) of the novelist, playwright and clergyman Charles Maturin , who may have influenced her own literary career. She believed, mistakenly, that she

1905-433: A mirror." Likewise, French intellectuals investigated the sociology of the dandies ( flâneurs ) who strolled Parisian boulevards; in the essay " On Dandyism and George Brummell " (1845) Jules Amédée Barbey d'Aurevilly analysed the personal and social career of Beau Brummell as a man-about-town who arbitrated what was fashionable and what was unfashionable in polite society. In the late 19th century, dandified bohemianism

2032-555: A moral crisis but ultimately decides to pursue Maria, whom he loves. This does not stop him from still dreaming about Elena. Rejected by Elena's cold nature, Andrea learns through friends that Maria's husband has fallen into financial ruin caused by gambling. Maria remains strong in the face of her pain and tells Andrea that he must remain faithful to her. Andrea, however, is struggling to conceal his "doppio gioco," literally, double game, that he has been playing, wherein he has been courting Maria and Elena without either of them knowing about

2159-456: A noble man who is the leader of his social circle, Shonibare uses neo-Victorianism as a genre to interrogate and counter normative historical narratives and the power hierarchies they produce(d). Black dandyism serves as a catalyst for contemporary Black identities to explore self-fashioning and expressions of neo-Victorian Blacks: The Black dandy's look is highly tailored – the antithesis of baggy wear. [...] Black dandyism rejects this. In fact,

2286-679: A number of favourite haunts in London. These included the Café Royal in Piccadilly, Hatchards bookstore in Piccadilly, and the department stores Liberty & Co. on Great Marlborough Street and Harrods in Knightsbridge; Wilde was among Harrods' first selected customers who were granted extended credit. Criticism over artistic matters in The Pall Mall Gazette provoked a letter of self-defence, and soon Wilde

2413-522: A painful duty", and of Marion Crawford that "he immolated himself on the altar of local colour". Wilde had been regularly writing fairy stories for magazines. He published The Happy Prince and Other Tales in 1888. In 1891 he published two more collections, Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories , and in September A House of Pomegranates was dedicated "To Constance Mary Wilde". " The Portrait of Mr. W. H. ", which Wilde had begun in 1887,

2540-406: A person of beautiful dress and refined speech. By the 18th century, coint became quaint , indicating elegant speech and beauty. Middle English dictionaries note quaintrelle as a beautifully dressed woman (or overly dressed), but do not include the favorable personality elements of grace and charm. The notion of a quaintrelle sharing the major philosophical components of refinement with dandies

2667-532: A remarkably fascinating and compelling personality", and "the cleverness of his remarks received added value from his manner of delivering them." Wilde regularly attended the theatre and was especially taken with star actresses such as Ellen Terry and Sarah Bernhardt . In 1880 he completed his first play, Vera; or, The Nihilists , a tragic melodrama about Russian nihilism, and distributed privately printed copies to various actresses whom he hoped to interest in its sole female role. A one-off performance in London

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2794-418: A revolt against capitalism's emphasis on mass production and utilitarianism . Underscoring this somewhat paradoxical nature, philosopher Thorsten Botz-Bornstein describes the dandy as "an anarchist who does not claim anarchy ." He argues that this simultaneous abiding by and also ignorance of capitalist social pressures speaks to what he calls a “playful attitude towards life’s conventions." Not only does

2921-549: A second woman. Sir William acknowledged paternity of his children and provided for their education, arranging for them to be raised by his relatives. The family moved to No 1 Merrion Square in 1855. With both Sir William and Lady Wilde's success and delight in social life, the home soon became the site of a "unique medical and cultural milieu". Guests at their salon included Sheridan Le Fanu , Charles Lever , George Petrie , Isaac Butt , William Rowan Hamilton and Samuel Ferguson . Wilde's sister, Isola Francesca Emily Wilde,

3048-461: A self-fashioning that created an illusion of mobility in a highly stratified society . In the early discussion of the tax, the London Packet posed the question, “Is an actor, who in his own private character uniformly appears in a scratch wig, or wears his hair without powder, liable to pay the tax imposed by the new act, for any of the parts which he is necessitated to dress with powder on

3175-693: A series of longer prose pieces which were published in the major literary-intellectual journals of the day. In January 1889, The Decay of Lying: A Dialogue appeared in The Nineteenth Century , and Pen, Pencil and Poison , a satirical biography of Thomas Griffiths Wainewright , in The Fortnightly Review , edited by Wilde's friend Frank Harris . Two of Wilde's four writings on aesthetics are dialogues: though Wilde had evolved professionally from lecturer to writer, he retained an oral tradition of sorts. Having always excelled as

3302-421: A short but serious essay on the question, Wilde tossed the theory to the three characters of the story, allowing it to unfold as background to the plot  – an early masterpiece of Wilde's combining many elements that interested him: conversation, literature and the idea that to shed oneself of an idea one must first convince another of its truth. Ransome concludes that Wilde succeeds precisely because

3429-615: A single individual. The style of the novel is also of utmost importance: D'Annunzio adopts a unique brand of writing replete with courtly neologisms, frequently inflected with assonance and consonance. The work's insistence on a unique, pure language may account for its quasi- mannerist and baroque tones. The first English version entitled The Child of Pleasure was translated by Georgina Harding, published in 1898. This translation has been republished by Tikhanov Library in 2024. A new unexpurgated English translation by Lara Gochin Raffaelli

3556-442: A slogan, but it was criticized as being terribly vacuous. Some elements disdained the aesthetes, but their languorous attitudes and showy costumes became a recognisable pose. When four of his fellow students physically assaulted Wilde, he fended them off single-handedly, to the surprise of his detractors. By his third year Wilde had truly begun to develop himself and his myth, and considered his learning to be more expansive than what

3683-442: A sort of marketing or commodification of the self. The counterpart to the dandy is the quaintrelle , a woman whose life is dedicated to the passionate expression of personal charm and style, to enjoying leisurely pastimes, and the dedicated cultivation of the pleasures of life. In the 12th century, cointerrels (male) and cointrelles (female) emerged, based upon coint , a word applied to things skillfully made, later indicating

3810-407: A strange influence over my life". He learned tracts of the book by heart, and carried it with him on travels in later years. Pater gave Wilde his sense of almost flippant devotion to art, though he gained a purpose for it through the lectures and writings of critic John Ruskin . Ruskin despaired at the self-validating aestheticism of Pater, arguing that the importance of art lies in its potential for

3937-480: A strange race. "Dandizette" was a term applied to the feminine devotees to dress, and their absurdities were fully equal to those of the dandies." In 1819, Charms of Dandyism , in three volumes, was published by Olivia Moreland, Chief of the Female Dandies; most likely one of many pseudonyms used by Thomas Ashe. Olivia Moreland may have existed, as Ashe did write several novels about living persons. Throughout

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4064-520: A student, Wilde worked with Mahaffy on the latter's book Social Life in Greece . Wilde, despite later reservations, called Mahaffy "my first and best teacher" and "the scholar who showed me how to love Greek things". For his part, Mahaffy boasted of having created Wilde; later, he said Wilde was "the only blot on my tutorship". The University Philosophical Society also provided an education, as members discussed intellectual and artistic subjects such as

4191-462: A student, he was still eligible to enter. Its subject, "Historical Criticism among the Ancients" seemed ready-made for Wilde – with both his skill in composition and ancient learning – but he struggled to find his voice in the long, flat, scholarly style. Unusually, no prize was awarded that year. With the last of his inheritance from the sale of his father's houses, he set himself up as

4318-481: A swampy country lane into a smart road neatly edged with flowers. Wilde won the 1878 Newdigate Prize for his poem " Ravenna ", which reflected on his visit there in the previous year, and he duly read it at Encaenia . In November 1878, he graduated Bachelor of Arts with a double first , having been placed in the first class in Classical Moderations (the first part of the course) and then again in

4445-537: A thin volume of very mediocre verse", would improperly influence the behaviour of men and women. According to biographer Michèle Mendelssohn, Wilde was the subject of anti-Irish caricature and was portrayed as a monkey, a blackface performer and a Christy's Minstrel throughout his career. " Harper's Weekly put a sunflower-worshipping monkey dressed as Wilde on the front of the January 1882 issue. The drawing stimulated other American maligners and, in England, had

4572-472: A thoroughly healthy organism, and insure the material well-being of each member of the community. It will, in fact, give Life its proper basis and its proper environment". At the same time, he stressed that the government most amenable to artists was no government at all. Wilde envisioned a society where mechanisation has freed human effort from the burden of necessity, effort which can instead be expended on artistic creation. George Orwell summarised, "In effect,

4699-622: A villa his father had built in Cong, County Mayo . There the young Wilde and his brother Willie played with George Moore . Wilde left Portora with a royal scholarship to read classics at Trinity College Dublin (TCD), from 1871 to 1874, sharing rooms with his older brother Willie Wilde . Trinity, one of the leading classical schools, placed him with scholars such as R. Y. Tyrell , Arthur Palmer , Edward Dowden and his tutor, Professor J. P. Mahaffy , who inspired his interest in Greek literature . As

4826-641: A wealthy Queen's Counsel (lawyer). She happened to be visiting Dublin in 1884 when Wilde was lecturing at the Gaiety Theatre . He proposed to her, and they married on 29 May 1884 at the Anglican St James's Church, Paddington , in London. Although Constance had an annual allowance of £250, which was generous for a young woman (equivalent to £32,900 in 2023), the Wildes had relatively luxurious tastes. They had preached to others for so long on

4953-439: A wit and raconteur, he often composed by assembling phrases, bons mots and witticisms into a longer, cohesive work. Wilde was concerned about the effect of moralising on art; he believed in art's redemptive, developmental powers: "Art is individualism, and individualism is a disturbing and disintegrating force. There lies its immense value. For what it seeks is to disturb monotony of type, slavery of custom, tyranny of habit, and

5080-398: Is a form of Romanticism . Contrary to what many thoughtless people seem to believe, dandyism is not even an excessive delight in clothes and material elegance. For the perfect dandy, these [material] things are no more than the symbol of the aristocratic superiority of mind ." The linkage of clothing and political protest was a particularly English characteristic in 18th-century Britain;

5207-523: Is a modern development that returns quaintrelles to their historic roots. Female dandies did overlap with male dandies for a brief period during the early 19th century when dandy had a derisive definition of "fop" or "over-the-top fellow"; the female equivalents were dandyess or dandizette . Charles Dickens, in All the Year Around (1869) comments, "The dandies and dandizettes of 1819–20 must have been

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5334-416: Is dedicated to the veneration of a woman, Elena. Elena's chimerical nature, however, destroys the balance of the protagonist, and reveals her to be a kind of femme fatale. Sperelli's search for pleasure is doomed to remain unsatisfied, since he is unable to choose between two feminine archetypes represented, respectively, by Elena Muti (the femme fatale) and Maria Ferres (the pure woman), which cannot coexist in

5461-495: Is depicted as a stylish and flamboyant individual from the state of Carolina. The song often highlights Dandy Jim's extravagant clothing, his charm, and his prowess with the ladies. While the song does not explicitly address race, Dandy Jim's stylish and flamboyant persona aligns with aspects of Black dandyism, a cultural phenomenon characterized by sharp dressing, self-assurance, and individuality within Black communities. According to

5588-699: Is divided into two camps, those who thought Wilde was an engaging speaker and an original thinker, and those who thought he was the most pretentious fraud ever perpetrated on a groaning public." Though his press reception was hostile, Wilde was well received in diverse settings across America: he drank whiskey with miners in Leadville, Colorado , and was fêted at the most fashionable salons in many cities he visited. His earnings, plus expected income from The Duchess of Padua , allowed him to move to Paris between February and mid-May 1883. While there he met Robert Sherard , whom he entertained constantly. "We are dining on

5715-563: Is it that the Dandy asks in return? Solely, we may say, that you would recognise his existence; would admit him to be a living object; or even failing this, a visual object, or thing that will reflect rays of light. In the mid-19th century, amidst the restricted palette of muted colors for men's clothing, the English dandy dedicated meticulous attention to the finer details of sartorial refinement (design, cut, and style), including: "The quality of

5842-474: Is leaving him. After she leaves, Andrea begins a long line of seductions, seducing seven noble women in total. At last he begins to try to seduce Ippolita Albònico. One day, while at a horse race, Andrea angers Ippolita's husband who challenges him to a duel. Even though Andrea is better at fencing, he sustains a grave injury during the duel. Andrea spends time recovering at the home of his cousin Francesca, in

5969-673: Is unable to live [life]. Further addressing that vein of male narcissism , in the book Simulacra and Simulation (1981), Jean Baudrillard said that dandyism is "an aesthetic form of nihilism" that is centred upon the Self as the centre of the world. Elizabeth Amann's Dandyism in the Age of Revolution: The Art of the Cut (2015) quotes, "Dandyism has always been a cross-cultural phenomenon". Male self-fashioning carries socio-political implications beyond its superficiality and opulent external. Through

6096-482: The Hair Powder Act of 1795 , which aimed to levy a tax on from affluent consumers of hair powder to raise money for the war. Critics of the act expressed fear regarding the association between wearing hair powder and "a tendency to produce a famine,” and those who did so would “run the further risque of being knocked on the head”. In August 1975, journalists and new reports complained that "the papers had misled

6223-808: The Oxford Union , but failed to be elected. Attracted by its dress, secrecy and ritual, Wilde petitioned the Apollo Masonic Lodge at Oxford, and was soon raised to the Sublime Degree of Master Mason. During a resurgent interest in Freemasonry in his third year, he commented he "would be awfully sorry to give it up if I secede from the Protestant Heresy". Wilde's active involvement in Freemasonry lasted only for

6350-523: The SS Arizona , arriving on 2 January 1882, and disembarking the following day. Originally planned to last four months, the tour continued for almost a year owing to its commercial success. Wilde sought to transpose the beauty he saw in art into daily life. This was a practical as well as philosophical project: in Oxford he had surrounded himself with blue china and lilies, and now one of his lectures

6477-438: The conformity of contemporary middle-class men, cultivating the idea of beauty and aesthetics akin to a living religion. The dandy lifestyle, in certain respects, "comes close to spirituality and to stoicism " as an approach to living daily life, while its followers "have no other status, but that of cultivating the idea of beauty in their own persons, of satisfying their passions, of feeling and thinking … [because] Dandyism

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6604-407: The 1880s, Wilde was a close friend of the artist James McNeill Whistler and they dined together on many occasions. At one of these dinners, Whistler produced a bon mot that Wilde found particularly witty, Wilde exclaimed that he wished that he had said it. Whistler retorted "You will, Oscar, you will." Herbert Vivian  – a mutual friend of Wilde and Whistler – attended

6731-444: The 9th Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel . The Marquess was the father of Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas . The libel hearings unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and criminal prosecution for gross indecency with other males. The jury was unable to reach a verdict and so a retrial was ordered. In the second trial Wilde was convicted and sentenced to two years' hard labour ,

6858-471: The Black dandy is often making a concerted effort to juxtapose himself against racist stereotyping seen in mass media and popular culture [...] For dandies, dress becomes a strategy for negotiating the complexities of Black male identity [...]. "Dandy Jim of Carolina" is a minstrel song that originated in the United States during the 19th century. It tells the story of a character named Dandy Jim, who

6985-609: The Duchess tonight", Wilde would declare before taking him to an expensive restaurant. In August he briefly returned to New York for the production of Vera , the rights of which he had sold to the American actress Marie Prescott . The play was initially well received by the audience, but when the critics wrote lukewarm reviews, attendance fell sharply and the play closed a week after it had opened. In London, he had been introduced in 1881 to Constance Lloyd , daughter of Horace Lloyd,

7112-494: The French bohemians who closely imitated Brummell's habits of dress, manner, and style. In that time of political progress, French dandies were celebrated as social revolutionaries who were self-created men possessed of a consciously designed personality , men whose way of being broke with inflexible tradition that limited the social progress of greater French society; thus, with their elaborate dress and decadent styles of life,

7239-628: The French dandies conveyed their moral superiority to and political contempt for the conformist bourgeoisie . Regarding the social function of the dandy in a stratified society , like the British writer Carlyle, in Sartor Resartus , the French poet Baudelaire said that dandies have "no profession other than elegance … no other [social] status, but that of cultivating the idea of beauty in their own persons. … The dandy must aspire to be sublime without interruption; he must live and sleep before

7366-437: The Victorian prohibition against homosexuality. By Richard Ellmann 's account, he was a precocious seventeen-year-old who "so young and yet so knowing, was determined to seduce Wilde". According to Daniel Mendelsohn , Wilde, who had long alluded to Greek love , was "initiated into homosexual sex" by Ross, while his "marriage had begun to unravel after his wife's second pregnancy, which left him physically repelled". Wilde had

7493-526: The Villa Schifanoja. During this time he composes several poems. On 15 September 1886 Maria Ferres arrives to the villa along with her husband (who leaves shortly after) and daughter, Delfina. 10 days later, on 25 September, Andrea is seduced by Maria Ferres (unbeknownst to her). Andrea finally declares his love for Maria but she demurs because her daughter is present. Maria keeps a diary during these days, in which she writes down her own feelings about

7620-467: The age of sixty-one years, Beau Brummell passed away in a lunatic asylum in Caen , marking the tragic end to his once-glamorous legacy. Nonetheless, despite his ignominious end, Brummell's influence on European fashion endured, with men across the continent seeking to emulate his dandyism. Among them was the poetical persona of Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron, 1788–1824), who wore a poet's shirt featuring

7747-501: The analysis of clothing, aesthetics, and societal norms, Amann examines how dandyism emerged as a means of asserting identity, power, and autonomy in the midst of revolutionary change. Male self-fashioning, in particular, was wielded as a resistance expression in denial of itself due to the influence of the French Revolution on British discussions of masculinity. British prime minister William Pitt proposed an unusual measure:

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7874-457: The armoire up the steps into Palazzo Zuccari. The central theme is that of the decadent esthete. The novel is a central text of the Italian decadent literary movement, Decadentism . D'Annunzio was inspired by Huysmans 's pioneering work À rebours , which also strongly influenced Oscar Wilde 's novel The Picture of Dorian Gray . The esthete Andrea is a nobleman who loves only art, and who

8001-487: The best-known personalities of his day. At the turn of the 1890s, he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into what would be his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). Wilde returned to drama, writing Salome (1891) in French while in Paris, but it was refused a licence for England due to an absolute prohibition on

8128-468: The betterment of society. Ruskin admired beauty, but believed it must be allied with, and applied to, moral good. When Wilde eagerly attended Ruskin's lecture series The Aesthetic and Mathematic Schools of Art in Florence , he learned about aesthetics as the non-mathematical elements of painting. Despite being given to neither early rising nor manual labour, Wilde volunteered for Ruskin's project to convert

8255-514: The book sold out its first print run of 750 copies, it was not generally well received by the critics: Punch , for example, said that "The poet is Wilde, but his poetry's tame". By a tight vote, the Oxford Union condemned the book for alleged plagiarism . The librarian, who had requested the book for the library, returned the presentation copy to Wilde with a note of apology. Biographer Richard Ellmann argues that Wilde's poem " Hélas! "

8382-414: The broader cultural landscape surrounding Black dandyism and its portrayal in American folk music. Regarding the existence and the political and cultural functions of the dandy in a society, in the essay L'Homme révolté (1951), Albert Camus said that: The dandy creates his own unity by aesthetic means. But it is an aesthetic of negation. To live and die before a mirror : that, according to Baudelaire,

8509-612: The church hierarchy. He became more serious in 1878, when he met the Reverend Sebastian Bowden, a priest in the Brompton Oratory who had received some high-profile converts. Neither Mahaffy nor Sir William, who threatened to cut off his son's funding, thought much of the plan; but Wilde, the supreme individualist, balked at the last minute from pledging himself to any formal creed, and on the appointed day of his baptism into Catholicism, he sent Father Bowden

8636-510: The church was closed, the records were moved to the nearby St. Ann's Church, Dawson Street . A Catholic priest in Glencree, County Wicklow, also claimed to have baptised Wilde and his brother Willie. In addition to his two full siblings, Wilde had three paternal half-siblings, who were born out of wedlock before the marriage of his father: Henry Wilson, born in 1838 to one woman, and Emily and Mary Wilde, born in 1847 and 1849, respectively, to

8763-426: The dandy as "a clothes-wearing man"; Honoré de Balzac 's La fille aux yeux d'or (1835) chronicled the idle life of Henri de Marsay , a model French dandy whose downfall stemmed from his obsessive Romanticism in the pursuit of love, which led him to yield to sexual passion and murderous jealousy. In the metaphysical phase of dandyism, the poet Charles Baudelaire portrayed the dandy as an existential reproach to

8890-465: The dandy play with traditional conceptions of gender, but also with the socioeconomic norms of the society they inhabit; he agrees the importance that dandyism places on uniquely personal style directly opposes capitalism's call for conformity. Thomas Spence Smith highlights the function of style in maintaining social boundaries and individual status, particularly as traditional social structures have decrystallized in modernity. He notes that "style becomes

9017-481: The dandy's symbolic social function as a man and a persona of refined masculinity: A Dandy is a Clothes-wearing Man, a Man whose trade, office, and existence consists in the wearing of Clothes. Every faculty of his soul, spirit, purse, and person is heroically consecrated to this one object, the wearing of Clothes wisely and well: so that as others dress to live, he lives to dress. . . . And now, for all this perennial Martyrdom , and Poesy , and even Prophecy , what

9144-452: The dandy, paradoxically, required the gaze of spectators, an audience, and readers who consumed their "successfully marketed lives" in the public sphere . Figures such as playwright Oscar Wilde and poet Lord Byron personified the dual social roles of the dandy: the dandy-as-writer, and the dandy-as- persona ; each role a source of gossip and scandal , confining each man to the realm of entertaining high society . The earliest record of

9271-531: The dignitaries and writers who received him during his lecture tours. Aestheticism was sufficiently in vogue to be caricatured by Gilbert and Sullivan in Patience (1881). Richard D'Oyly Carte , an English impresario, invited Wilde to make a lecture tour of North America, simultaneously priming the pump for the US tour of Patience and selling this most charming aesthete to the American public. Wilde journeyed on

9398-580: The dinner and recorded it in his article The Reminiscences of a Short Life , which appeared in The Sun in 1889. The article alleged that Wilde had a habit of passing off other people's witticisms as his own – especially Whistler's. Wilde considered Vivian's article to be a scurrilous betrayal, and it directly caused the broken friendship between Wilde and Whistler. The Reminiscences also caused great acrimony between Wilde and Vivian, Wilde accusing Vivian of "the inaccuracy of an eavesdropper with

9525-602: The emerging philosophy of aestheticism , led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin . After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles. Wilde tried his hand at various literary activities: he wrote a play, published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on "The English Renaissance" in art and interior decoration, and then returned to London where he lectured on his American travels and wrote reviews for various periodicals. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversational skill, Wilde became one of

9652-423: The end of the second volume, Wilde left The Woman's World . The magazine outlasted him by only a year. Wilde's period at the helm of the magazine played a pivotal role in his development as a writer and facilitated his ascent to fame. Whilst Wilde the journalist supplied articles under the guidance of his editors, Wilde the editor was forced to learn to manipulate the literary marketplace on his own terms. During

9779-563: The end of the story, however, he loses both women. On 31 December 1886 Andrea Sperelli anxiously awaits the arrival of his ex-lover, Elena Muti in his house, Palazzo Zuccari. While waiting for her, he remembers their last farewell, which took place almost two years ago, in March 1885. Elena broke up with him in a carriage, telling him that she is to marry an Englishman. When Elena arrives, he alternates between his feelings of love for her and pain because of their separation. The narrator then explains

9906-609: The events that transpire and of her love for Andrea. Finally, on 4 October, Maria tells Andrea that she loves him. Her husband returns and the two lovers are separated. Once he returns to Rome, Andrea resumes his decadent lifestyle, as it was before his injury: he spends time with women of the demimonde and superficial, indifferent friends. Restless and full of bitterness, he meets Maria Ferres. His attraction to his old lover, in her new role as temptress, and his fascination with Maria for her pureness and fragility, become intertwined in his mind. He therefore tries to seduce Elena in again, in

10033-639: The final examination in Literae Humaniores (Greats). Wilde wrote to a friend, "The dons are ' astonied ' beyond words – the Bad Boy doing so well in the end!" After graduation from Oxford, Wilde returned to Dublin, where he met again Florence Balcombe , a childhood sweetheart. She became engaged to Bram Stoker and they married in 1878. Wilde was disappointed but stoic. He wrote to Balcombe remembering; "the two sweet years –

10160-414: The fine woollen cloth, the slope of a pocket flap or coat revers, exactly the right colour for the gloves, the correct amount of shine on boots and shoes, and so on. It was an image of a well-dressed man who, while taking infinite pains about his appearance, affected indifference to it. This refined dandyism continued to be regarded as an essential strand of male Englishness." In monarchic France, dandyism

10287-474: The flamboyant and ostentatious attire of the latter. Beau Brummell (George Bryan Brummell, 1778–1840) was the model British dandy since his days as an undergraduate at Oriel College, Oxford , and later as an associate of the Prince Regent (George IV) – all despite not being an aristocrat. Always bathed and shaved, always powdered and perfumed, always groomed and immaculately dressed in

10414-456: The history Andrea's family, and his father's advice to Andrea, and his arrival to Rome as a youth. The reader then learns about Andrea and Elena's first meeting, which took place at a dinner party hosted by the Marchesa of Ateleta, Andrea's cousin. The two talk at the party and the next day meet each other again. The two begin an affair, which ends abruptly when Elena announces one night that she

10541-554: The homogenization whiteness as the figurehead of the movement. It is important to acknowledge Black dandyism as distinct and a highly political effort at challenging stereotypes of race, class, gender, and nationality. British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare (b. 1962) employs the neo-Victorian dandy stereotypes to illustrate the Black man experiences in Western European societies. Shonibare's photographic suite Dorian Gray (2001) refers to Oscar Wilde 's literary creation of

10668-465: The job began to fade as administration, commuting and office life became tedious. At the same time as Wilde's interest flagged, the publishers became concerned about circulation: sales, at the relatively high price of one shilling, remained low. Increasingly sending instructions to the magazine by letter, Wilde began a new period of creative work and his own column appeared less regularly. In October 1889, Wilde had finally found his voice in prose and, at

10795-592: The literary criticism is unveiled with such a deft touch. Though containing nothing but "special pleading" – it would not, he says "be possible to build an airier castle in Spain than this of the imaginary William Hughes" – we continue listening nonetheless to be charmed by the telling. "You must believe in Willie Hughes," Wilde told an acquaintance, "I almost do, myself." Wilde, having tired of journalism, had been busy setting out his aesthetic ideas more fully in

10922-492: The maximum penalty, and was jailed from 1895 to 1897. During his last year in prison he wrote De Profundis (published posthumously in abridged form in 1905), a long letter that discusses his spiritual journey through his trials and is a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure. On the day of his release, he caught the overnight steamer to France, never to return to Britain or Ireland. In France and Italy, he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898),

11049-506: The method of a blackmailer" and banishing Vivian from his circle. Vivian's allegations did not diminish Wilde's reputation as an epigrammatist. London theatre director Luther Munday recounted some of Wilde's typical quips: Wilde said of Whistler that "he had no enemies but was intensely disliked by his friends", of Hall Caine that "he wrote at the top of his voice", of Rudyard Kipling that "he revealed life by splendid flashes of vulgarity", of Henry James that "he wrote fiction as if it were

11176-489: The musk-wearing Muscadin ruffians of the middle-class Thermidorean reaction (1794–1795). Modern dandyism, however, emerged in stratified societies of Europe during the 1790s revolution periods, especially in London and Paris. Within social settings, the dandy cultivated a persona characterized by extreme posed cynicism , or "intellectual dandyism" as defined by Victorian novelist George Meredith ; whereas Thomas Carlyle , in his novel Sartor Resartus (1831), dismissed

11303-695: The national politics of the Regency era (1795–1837), by the time that Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger had introduced the Duty on Hair Powder Act (1795) in order to fund the Britain's war efforts against France and discouraged the use of foodstuffs as hair powder, the dandy Brummell already had abandoned wearing a powdered wig and wore his hair cut à la Brutus , in the Roman fashion. Moreover, Brummell also led

11430-517: The novel, dandyism is associated with "living in style". Later, as the word dandy evolved to denote refinement, it became applied solely to men. Popular Culture and Performance in the Victorian City (2003) notes this evolution in the latter 19th century: " … or dandizette , although the term was increasingly reserved for men." Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900)

11557-460: The other. After seeing Elena leave her house to visit a new lover, Andrea becomes distressed. He then visits Maria and inadvertently calls out Elena's name while the two are having sex. Maria is horrified and leaves him. Andrea begins avoiding his friends and acquaintances, but one day decides to go to an auction of Maria's husband's estate. There he buys an armoire and returns home just as it is being delivered. The novel closes with him slowly following

11684-555: The palace where he'd first possessed her, Palazzo Barberini , but her husband appears and he immediately gives up. Soon after, Andrea spends time at Maria Ferres' house in Rome, where they talk. The next night, the two meet again at a concert at the Philharmonic, which Elena also attends. Elena becomes jealous of the couple and before leaving, asks Andrea to accompany her to her carriage where she kisses him passionately. Andrea then has

11811-551: The plot. He excelled academically, particularly in the subject of classics , in which he ranked fourth in the school in 1869. His aptitude for giving oral translations of Greek and Latin texts won him multiple prizes, including the Carpenter Prize for Greek Testament. He was one of only three students at Portora to win a Royal School scholarship to Trinity in 1871. In 1871, when Wilde was seventeen, his elder half-sisters Mary and Emily died aged 22 and 24, fatally burned at

11938-472: The poor and encouraged them to consider powdered heads their enemies," a “calculated to excite riots.” With the new legislation, the powdered look became a marker of class in English society and a much more exclusive one, polarizing those who used the products and those who did not. Those who feared making class boundaries too visible considered the distinctions to be deep and significant and therefore wished to protect them by making them less evident, by allowing

12065-423: The portrayal of Biblical subjects on the English stage. Undiscouraged, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late-Victorian London. At the height of his fame and success, while An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) were still being performed in London, Wilde issued a civil writ against John Sholto Douglas,

12192-481: The press: the Springfield Republican , for instance, commented on Wilde's behaviour during his visit to Boston to lecture on aestheticism, suggesting that Wilde's conduct was more a bid for notoriety rather than devotion to beauty and the aesthetic. T. W. Higginson , a cleric and abolitionist, wrote in "Unmanly Manhood" of his general concern that Wilde, "whose only distinction is that he has written

12319-428: The reader: he concludes that "there is really a great deal to be said of the Willie Hughes theory of Shakespeare's sonnets." By the end fact and fiction have melded together. Arthur Ransome wrote that Wilde "read something of himself into Shakespeare's sonnets" and became fascinated with the "Willie Hughes theory" despite the lack of biographical evidence for the historical William Hughes' existence. Instead of writing

12446-482: The reduction of man to the level of a machine." In his only political text, The Soul of Man Under Socialism , he argued political conditions should establish this primacy – private property should be abolished, and cooperation should be substituted for competition. He wrote "Socialism, Communism, or whatever one chooses to call it, by converting private property into public wealth, and substituting co-operation for competition, will restore society to its proper condition of

12573-598: The same name, The Picture Of Dorian Gray (1890), but with the substitution of a disfigured Black protagonist. As the series progress, readers soon notice that there exists no real picture of "Dorian Gray" but only illustrations of other white protagonists. It is through this theme of isolation and Otherness that the Black Dorian Gray becomes Shonibare's comment on the absence of Black representation in Victorian Britain . Shonibare's artwork Diary of

12700-452: The sartorial transition from breeches to tailored pantaloons , which eventually evolved into modern trousers . Upon coming of age in 1799, Brummell received a paternal inheritance of thirty thousand pounds sterling, which he squandered on a high life of gambling, lavish tailors, and visits to brothels. Eventually declaring bankruptcy in 1816, Brummell fled England to France, where he lived in destitution and pursued by creditors; in 1840, at

12827-480: The social fabric rather than stand out. Dandyism is intricately linked with modern capitalism , embodying both a product of and a critique against it. According to Elisa Glick, the dandy's attention to their appearance and their engagement "consumption and display of luxury goods" can be read as an expression of capitalist commodification . However, interestingly, this meticulous attention to personal appearance can also be seen as an assertion of individuality and thus

12954-408: The sociologic connotation was that dandyism embodied a reactionary form of protest against social equality and the leveling effects of egalitarian principles. Thus, the dandy represented a nostalgic yearning for feudal values and the ideals of the perfect gentleman as well as the autonomous aristocrat  – referring to men of self-made person and persona . The social existence of

13081-499: The stage?” This seemingly trivial inquiry unveils a profound aspect of the legislation: By paying the tax, citizens were essentially purchasing the right to craft a persona, akin to an actor who took on a stage role. Exaggerated self-fashioning was no longer an oppositional strategy and instead became the prevailing norm. To protest the tax and the war against France was to embrace a new aesthetic of invisibility, wherein individuals favored natural attire and simplicity in order to blend into

13208-434: The standards of the day, it was ludicrous and hilarious to see a person of perceived lower social standing donning fashionable attire and "putting on airs." For most of racist 19th century America a well dressed African American was an odd thing, and naturally someone of that ilk would be seen as acting out of place. The representation of Dandy Jim, while potentially rooted in caricature or exaggeration, nonetheless contribute to

13335-643: The subject of design that people expected their home to set new standards. No 16 Tite Street was duly renovated in seven months at considerable expense. The couple had two sons, Cyril (1885) and Vyvyan (1886). Wilde became the sole literary signatory of George Bernard Shaw 's petition for a pardon of the anarchists arrested (and later executed) after the Haymarket massacre in Chicago in 1886. In 1886, while at Oxford, Wilde met Robert Ross . Ross, who had read Wilde's poems before they met, seemed unrestrained by

13462-516: The sweetest years of all my youth" during which they had been close. He also stated his intention to "return to England, probably for good". This he did in 1878, only briefly visiting Ireland twice after that. Unsure of his next step, Wilde wrote to various acquaintances enquiring about Classics positions at Oxford or Cambridge. The Rise of Historical Criticism was his submission for the Chancellor's Essay prize of 1879, which, though no longer

13589-541: The time he spent at Oxford; he allowed his membership of the Apollo University Lodge to lapse after failing to pay subscriptions. Catholicism deeply appealed to him, especially its rich liturgy, and he discussed converting to it with clergy several times. In 1877, Wilde was left speechless after an audience with Pope Pius IX in Rome. He eagerly read the books of Cardinal Newman , a noted Anglican priest who had converted to Catholicism and risen in

13716-475: The word dandy dates back to the late 1700s, in Scottish Song . Since the late 18th century, the word dandy has been rumored to be an abbreviated usage of the 17th-century British jack-a-dandy used to described a conceited man. In British North America , prior to American Revolution (1765–1791), a British version of the song " Yankee Doodle " in its first verse: "Yankee Doodle went to town, / Upon

13843-410: The work of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Algernon Charles Swinburne weekly. Wilde quickly became an established member – the members' suggestion book for 1874 contains two pages of banter sportingly mocking Wilde's emergent aestheticism. He presented a paper titled Aesthetic Morality . At Trinity, Wilde established himself as an outstanding student: he came first in his class in his first year, won

13970-542: Was Ireland's leading oto - ophthalmologic (ear and eye) surgeon and was knighted in 1864 for his services as medical adviser and assistant commissioner to the censuses of Ireland. He also wrote books about Irish archaeology and peasant folklore. A renowned philanthropist, his dispensary for the care of the city's poor at the rear of Trinity College Dublin (TCD), was the forerunner of the Dublin Eye and Ear Hospital, now located at Adelaide Road. On his father's side Wilde

14097-631: Was a contributor to that and other journals during 1885–87. Although Richard Ellmann has claimed that Wilde enjoyed reviewing, Wilde's wife would tell friends that "Mr Wilde hates journalism". Like his parents before him, Wilde supported Ireland's cause, and when Charles Stewart Parnell was falsely accused of inciting murder , he wrote a series of astute columns defending the politician in the Daily Chronicle . His flair, having previously been put mainly into socialising, suited journalism and rapidly attracted notice. With his youth nearly over and

14224-415: Was a sincere, though flamboyant, attempt to explain the dichotomies the poet saw in himself; one line reads: "To drift with every passion till my soul / Is a stringed lute on which all winds can play". The book had further printings in 1882. It was bound in a rich, enamel parchment cover (embossed with gilt blossom) and printed on hand-made Dutch paper; over the next few years, Wilde presented many copies to

14351-447: Was a work of art." When asked to explain reports that he had paraded down Piccadilly in London carrying a lily, long hair flowing, Wilde replied, "It's not whether I did it or not that's important, but whether people believed I did it". Wilde believed that the artist should hold forth higher ideals, and that pleasure and beauty would replace utilitarian ethics. Wilde and aestheticism were both mercilessly caricatured and criticised in

14478-618: Was advertised in November 1881 with Mrs. Bernard Beere as Vera, but withdrawn by Wilde for what was claimed to be consideration for political feeling in England. He had been publishing lyrics and poems in magazines since entering Trinity College, especially in Kottabos and the Dublin University Magazine . In mid-1881, at 27 years old, he published Poems , which collected, revised and expanded his poems. Though

14605-753: Was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray , and his criminal conviction for gross indecency for homosexual acts. Wilde's parents were Anglo-Irish intellectuals in Dublin . In his youth, Wilde learned to speak fluent French and German. At university, he read Greats ; he demonstrated himself to be an exceptional classicist , first at Trinity College Dublin , then at Magdalen College, Oxford . He became associated with

14732-462: Was born on 2 April 1857. She was named in tribute to Iseult of Ireland , wife of Mark of Cornwall and lover of the Cornish knight, Sir Tristan . She shared the name Francesca with her mother, while Emily was the name of her maternal aunt. Oscar would later describe how his sister was like "a golden ray of sunshine dancing about our home" and he was grief stricken when she died at the age of nine of

14859-541: Was characteristic of the artists who were the Symbolist movement in French poetry and literature, wherein the "Truth of Art" included the artist to the work of art. Black dandies have existed since the beginnings of dandyism and have been formative for its aesthetics in many ways. Maria Weilandt in "The Black Dandy and Neo-Victorianism : Re-fashioning a Stereotype " (2021) critiques the history of Western European dandyism as primarily centered around white individuals and

14986-467: Was descended from a Dutch soldier, Colonel de Wilde, who came to Ireland with King William of Orange 's invading army in 1690, and numerous Anglo-Irish ancestors. On his mother's side, Wilde's ancestors included a bricklayer from County Durham , who emigrated to Ireland sometime in the 1770s. Wilde was baptised as an infant in St. Mark's Church, Dublin , the local Church of Ireland ( Anglican ) church. When

15113-572: Was first published in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine in July 1889. It is a short story which reports a conversation in which the theory that Shakespeare's sonnets were written out of the poet's love of the boy actor " Willie Hughes ", is advanced, retracted, and then propounded again. The only evidence for this is two supposed puns within the sonnets themselves. The anonymous narrator is at first sceptical, then believing, and finally flirtatious with

15240-628: Was ideologically bound to the egalitarian politics of the French Revolution (1789–1799); thus the dandyism of the jeunesse dorée (the Gilded Youth) was their political statement of aristocratic style in effort to differentiate and distinguish themselves from the working-class sans-culottes , from the poor men who owned no stylish knee-breeches made of silk. In the late 18th century, British and French men abided Beau Brummell's dictates about fashion and etiquette , especially

15367-401: Was not as popular as his older brother, Wilde impressed his peers with the humorous and inventive school stories he told. Later in life, he claimed that his fellow students had regarded him as a prodigy for his ability to speed read , claiming that he could read two facing pages simultaneously and consume a three-volume book in half an hour, retaining enough information to give a basic account of

15494-519: Was of Italian ancestry, and under the pseudonym "Speranza" (the Italian word for 'hope'), she wrote poetry for the revolutionary Young Irelanders in 1848; she was a lifelong Irish nationalist . Jane Wilde read the Young Irelanders' poetry to Willie and Oscar, inculcating a love of these poets in her sons. Her interest in the neo-classical revival showed in the paintings and busts of ancient Greece and Rome in her home. Sir William Wilde

15621-458: Was on interior design. In a British Library article on aestheticism and decadence, Carolyn Burdett writes, "Wilde teased his readers with the claim that life imitates art rather than the other way round. His point was a serious one: we notice London fogs, he argued, because art and literature has taught us to do so. Wilde, among others, 'performed' these maxims. He presented himself as the impeccably dressed and mannered dandy figure whose life

15748-579: Was published in 2013. Dandy A dandy is a man who places particular importance upon physical appearance and personal grooming, refined language and leisurely hobbies. A dandy could be a self-made man both in person and persona , who emulated the aristocratic style of life regardless of his middle-class origin, birth, and background, especially during the late 18th and early 19th centuries in Britain. Early manifestations of dandyism were Le petit-maître (the Little Master) and

15875-410: Was the dandy's slogan. It is indeed a coherent slogan. The dandy is, by occupation, always in opposition [to society]. He can only exist by defiance … The dandy, therefore, is always compelled to astonish. Singularity is his vocation, excess his way to perfection. Perpetually incomplete, always on the fringe of things, he compels others to create him, while denying their values. He plays at life because he

16002-438: Was what set the dandy apart from colonial society. In other cultural contexts, an Anglo–Scottish border ballad dated around 1780 utilized dandy in its Scottish connotation and not the derisive British usage populated in colonial North America. Since the 18th century, contemporary British usage has drawn a distinction between a dandy and a fop , with the former characterized by a more restrained and refined wardrobe compared to

16129-802: Was within the prescribed texts. He was rusticated for one term, after he had returned late to a college term from a trip to Greece with Mahaffy. Wilde did not meet Walter Pater until his third year, but had been enthralled by his Studies in the History of the Renaissance , published during Wilde's final year in Trinity. Pater argued that man's sensibility to beauty should be refined above all else, and that each moment should be felt to its fullest extent. Years later, in De Profundis , Wilde described Pater's Studies... as "that book that has had such

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