Wilde in the Dream Factory

Reviews / Votes

A fairly audacious thesis with a staggeringly broad sweep...[A] stimulating and readable study * Keith Hopper, Times Literary Supplement * Brilliant ! A wide-ranging excavation of Wilde's overlooked presence in early American cinema, from the first silent movies through to the gangster narratives, screwball comedies, and film noirs of the 1930s and 1940s, written with all the verve and sparkle of a Wildean aphorism. If Wilde's effects on early cinema were not always frankly acknowledged, Hext shows they were nonetheless profound. Leading figures of the period - Alla Nazimova, Ernst Lubitsch, Ben Hecht, Mae West, Greta Garbo, Edward G. Robinson, Alfred Hitchcock - appear here in a new and utterly fascinating light. This is a major contribution to film studies, as well as to understanding of American cultural history and Wildeas legacy in popular culture. * Nicholas Frankel, author of Oscar Wilde: The Unrepentant Years and The Invention of Oscar Wilde * In this original, impressively researched, charmingly written study of Oscar Wilde's influence on American culture and movies, Kate Hext reveals many surprising branches of aestheticism and decadence. Ranging from Nazimova to Bogart and beyond, she demonstrates that despite Puritanism and the Production Code, classic Hollywood made Oscar sexy and fun, not just a statuette. * James Naremore, author of The Magic World of Orson Welles, Acting in the Cinema, and More than Night: Film Noir in Its Contexts * Oscar goes to Hollywood in Kate Hext's outrageously witty projection of Wilde's posthumous 'career' in La-La Land. A brilliantly researched and beautifully written book which proves that the early cinema was far queerer than we might have assumed. * Philip Hoare, Author of Wilde's Last Stand * Kate Hext takes us on a Wilde ride through the first few decades of the American film industry that's as insightful and illuminating as it is good plain fun. * Nora Gilbert, Author of Better Left Unsaid: Victorian Novels, Hays Code Films, and the Benefits of Censorship * Hext is a subtle, observant, lively and persuasive writer. She knows her stuff and never takes it too solemnly. Her book is a winner. * Richard Davenport-Hines, The Spectator * Hext is a subtle, observant, lively and persuasive writer. She knows her stuff and never takes it too solemnly. Her book is a winner. * Richard Davenport-Hines, The Spectator * [Hext's] range of reference is impressive...[a] staggeringly broad sweep...[a] stimulating and readable study... * Keith Hopper, TLS * Wilde in the Dream Factory is a meticulous and insightful cultural history of how some of Wilde's works and much of his style influenced early American filmmaking, which also hints at the ways in which Hollywood has shaped Wilde's public reception to this day. * James Brooke-Smith, Society * ... one of the best contributions thus far to the growing number of studies of Wilde's afterlives in twentieth-and twenty-first century popular culture. * James Brooke Smith, Society *