Aubrey Beardsley – illustratör

”Ah! du ville inte låta mig kyssa din mun, Iokanaan. Då skall jag kyssa den nu. Jag skall bita den med mina tänder så som man biter i en mogen frukt. Ja, jag skall kyssa din mun, Iokanaan. Jag sade ju det, inte sant? Jag sade ju det? Då skall jag kyssa den, nu.” Detta är en unik, trespråkig utgåva av Oscar Wildes pjäs Salome. Den innehåller den franska originaltexten, den första översättningen till engelska komplett med Aubrey Beardsleys illustrationer, samt Hillevi Hellbergs nyöversättning till svenska. Texten föregås av ett initierat förord av Cecilia Carlander och är utförligt försedd med kommentarer av översättaren.

Salomé, the haunting one-act tragedy that marks Wilde’s first great success in the theatre, retells the Biblical story in which the stepdaughter of the tetrarch Herod Antipas demands the head of John the Baptist on a silver platter as a reward for her dancing for her stepfather’s amusement. Written in 1891, and prepared for its first run in 1892, rehearsals of Salomé had to be cancelled when the play was banned by the Lord Chamberlain due to its depiction of religious characters.Undaunted, Wilde moved on to the drawing-room and society comedies he is today best known for, wowing London audiences with Lady Windermere’s Fan and A Woman of No Importance, and it was only in 1894 that Salomé saw the light of day in an English translation, with a series of specially commissioned illustrations by the up-and-coming Aubrey Beardsley.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY SOPHIE GEEA hideous crime is committed at a fashionable London society gathering. The victim is the beautiful, innocent Belinda, her attacker is the dastardly Baron, and his weapon of choice is a pair of scissors...Pope's mock-epic is the sharp and witty tale of the most famous bad hair day in the history of literature.

“Salomé” is a 1891 play in one act by Oscar Wilde. Oscar Fingal O''Flahertie Wills Wilde (1854–1900) was an Irish poet and playwright who became one of the most popular in London during the 1880s and 1890s. Well-known for his sharp wit and extravagant attire, Wilde was a proponent of aestheticism and wrote in a variety of forms including poetry, fiction, and drama. He was famously imprisoned for homosexual acts from 1895 to 1897 and died at the age of 46, just three years after his release. In his play “Salomé”, Wilde offers his own telling of the Bible''s story of Salome, the stepdaughter of Herod Antipas who demands John the Baptist''s head as payment for her performance of the dance of the seven veils. A fantastic play not to be missed by lovers of the stage and fans Wilde''s seminal work. Other notable works by this author include: “Picture of Dorian Gray” (1890), “An Ideal Husband” (1893), and “The Importance of Being Earnest” (1895). Read & Co. Classics is proudly republishing this classic play now complete with a specially-commissioned new biography of the author.

An essential collection of chivalric romance, swordplay, wizardry and brutal feats of courage, Malory’s 15th century Morte d’Arthur is one of the world’s greatest pieces of myth-making, with most gothic and modern fantasy finding its roots in this splendid mix of history, magic and literature. This selected edition features all the best stories and many of Aubrey Beardsley’s classic illustrations.Flame Tree Gothic Fantasy, Classic Stories and Epic Tales collections bring together the entire range of myth, folklore, epic literature and modern short fiction. Highlighting the roots of suspense, supernatural, science fiction and mystery stories, the books in Flame Tree Collections series are beautifully presented, perfect as a gift and offer a lifetime of reading pleasure.