2013/06/26 by Gregory Mackie · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Decadence, Literature, and Society #Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes #Social and Cultural Dynamics
paper · doi:10.7202/1016742ar
openalex publication_date 2013/06/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
“The Soul of Man under Socialism” is unique among Oscar Wilde’s essays because it was published as a book during his lifetime. As The Soul of Man , it appeared five days after his sentencing to two years’ imprisonment. Issued by family friend Arthur Humphreys, The Soul of Man was published in a modest, privately printed edition limited to fifty copies. Wilde’s essay provided Humphreys with an opportunity to combat injustice with idealism. Humphreys’ edition went further, intensifying Wilde’s denunciation of a punitive society by emending the essay’s text, specifically by deleting the word “occasional” from Wilde’s critique of crime and punishment. Indeed, the essay’s strident indignation derives from a sense of solidarity with identities considered deviant by public opinion, which, I argue, was precisely Humphreys’ purpose when he pointedly published The Soul of Man in 1895.