Salome: A Tragedy in One Act: Translated from the French of Oscar Wilde. Pictured by Aubrey Beardsley.

Wilde’s great play ― originally written in French ― features Beardsley illustrations and an introduction by Robert Ross. Salomé is the 1891 tragedy of Oscar Wilde. It is his most experimental—and controversial—play. In its own time the play was described by a reviewer as “an arrangement in blood and ferocity, morbid, bizarre, repulsive, and offensive in its adaptation of scriptural phraseology of situations the reverse of sacred.” None, however, could deny the importance of Wilde’s creation. Contemporary audiences and reviewers variously regarded Salomé as the symbol of a thrilling modernity, a challenge to patriarchy, a confession of desire, a sign of moral decay, a new form of art, and a revolt against the restraints of Victorian society. Less well known than Wilde’s beloved comedies, Salomé is as enduringly modern and relevant. The play tells in one act the Biblical story of Salomé, stepdaughter of the Tetrarch Herod, who dances the Dance of the Seven Veils to satisfy his lust for her, and then requests the head of Iokanaan (John the Baptist) on a silver platter as payment. mannwilliam.com —- ISBN: 9798423673260