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The Soul of Man Under Socialism
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The Soul of Man Under Socialism Paperback - 2013

by Oscar Wilde


From the publisher

"The Soul of Man under Socialism" is an 1891 essay by Oscar Wilde in which he expounds an anarchist worldview. The creation of "The Soul of Man" followed Wilde's conversion to anarchist philosophy, following his reading of the works of Peter Kropotkin. In "The Soul of Man," Wilde argues that, under capitalism, "the majority of people spoil their lives by an unhealthy and exaggerated altruism-are forced, indeed, so to spoil them" instead of realising their true talents, they waste their time solving the social problems caused by capitalism, without taking their common cause away. Thus, caring people "seriously and very sentimentally set themselves to the task of remedying the evils that they see in poverty but their remedies do not cure the disease: they merely prolong it" because, as Wilde puts it, "the proper aim is to try and reconstruct society on such a basis that poverty will be impossible."

Details

  • Title The Soul of Man Under Socialism
  • Author Oscar Wilde
  • Binding Paperback
  • Pages 46
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Createspace
  • Date 2/1/2013
  • ISBN 9781482339413 / 1482339412
  • Weight 0.17 lbs (0.08 kg)
  • Dimensions 9 x 6 x 0.1 in (22.86 x 15.24 x 0.25 cm)
  • Reading level 1110
  • Dewey Decimal Code 828.809

About the author

Oscar Fingall O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born in Dublin in 1854. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin and Magdalen College, Oxford where, a disciple of Pater, he founded an aesthetic cult. In 1884 he married Constance Lloyd, and his two sons were born in 1885 and 1886. His novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), and social comedies Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), A Woman of No Importance (1893), An Ideal Husband (1895), and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), established his reputation. In 1895, following his libel action against the Marquess of Queesberry, Wilde was sentenced to two years' imprisonment for homosexual conduct, as a result of which he wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), and his confessional letter De Profundis (1905). On his release from prison in 1897 he lived in obscurity in Europe, and died in Paris in 1900.