Salomé: A Tragedy in One Act

by Oscar Wilde, Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas

Overview

Salome is a tragic play written by Oscar Wilde, which tells the biblical story of Salome. Salome dances the Dance of the Seven Veils so well that she receives a boon from her stepfather Herod Antipas. Much to his dismay and her mother's delight she requests the head of John the Baptist on a silver platter. Though John is a favorite of Herod and under his protection, Herod cannot rescind his boon.

Wilde originally wrote the play in French, and it was translated three years later into English.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781877527807
Publisher:	The Floating Press
Publication date:	01/01/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	97 KB

About the Author

Joseph Donohue is Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and coeditor of an award-winning critical edition of Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest. Barry Moser is Irwin and Pauline Alper Professor of Art at Smith College and the illustrator of numerous works of literature, including celebrated editions of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Holy Bible.

University of Virginia Press

Date of Birth:

October 16, 1854

Date of Death:

November 30, 1900

Place of Birth:

Dublin, Ireland

Place of Death:

Paris, France

Education:

The Royal School in Enniskillen, Dublin, 1864; Trinity College, Dublin, 1871; Magdalen College, Oxford, England, 1874

Editorial Reviews

Donohue has set himself the task of rendering Wilde's French tragedy in 'an up-to-date, colloquial yet spare English translation' that could be performed on stage today. His work reads smoothly, and he's breathed life back into the play... The ominous Barry Moser engravings also establish the time and place mercifully free of a single Beardsley peacock feather.Shelf Talker: A smooth, effective translation of the infamous 1893 Oscar Wilde play, accompanied by a fascinating essay on the play's history, its successes and scandals.

Shelf Awareness

This is an impressive achievement, rendering into clear and effective modern English an important play not well served by the standard translation. The effect is not unlike that of seeing a painting that has been restored. In the words of Miss Prism, it has been a great inconvenience being without it all these years.

Russell Jackson