WILDE, Oscar

Aristophanes at Oxford

Oxford [&] London: J. Vincent [&] Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., 1894. Item #06516

“Wilde at Oxford — A Lifetime Edition Issued on the Eve of Scandal”
Limited to 750 Copies - Published May 1894

WILDE, Oscar. Aristophanes at Oxford By O[scar] W[ilde]. O.W. by Y.T.O. [all rights reseved]. Oxford [&] London: J. Vincent [&] Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., May 1894.

[One of 750 copies printed].

Small quarto (7 5/8 x 5 1/8 inches; 194 x 130 mm.). [viii], [1], 2–85, [1, blank] pp.

Publisher’s stiff tan/gray wrappers, front cover lettered in green. Wrapper edges a little chipped, as usual; otherwise an excellent example, internally clean and well preserved. Housed in a green cloth clamshell case, spine lettered in gilt.

A lifetime edition of Wilde’s early Oxford satire, originally composed in 1879, here issued anonymously (“O.W. by Y.T.O.”) in a limited printing of 750 copies.

Published in May 1894, at the height of Wilde’s literary success and just one year before his dramatic fall, this edition represents the first substantial reappearance of the text in expanded form, extending to 85 pages. It offers a rare glimpse of Wilde’s formative wit - rooted in classical parody and undergraduate satire - reissued for a contemporary audience during his most celebrated period.

Mason 685.

Price: $1,500.00