Great Writers Library, 1986
Price: £4.99
History: A birthday present from my aunt and uncle in New Zealand. Maybe I should move there? All of my really nice copies seem to come from there...
Look: gorgeous in every way. The black leather has an evil, medieval feel; the cover image is pleasingly sepia (even if the gent on the right resembles Sgt Andy "your dad sells apples" Wainwright from Hot Fuzz). The thin paper and splotchy text just increases the antique feel.
Introduction/Appendices: None, but my relations sent it with a cutting from the Weekend Herald about a priest who quoted Oscar Wilde in a book entitled Aphorisms for an Anti-Conformist Christian. It sounds pretty exciting to me. It's a fairly good little article, even if a Catholic establishment figure thinking Wilde had something relevant to say isn't exactly what I'd call news. And the journalist makes the mistake of claiming the book's "moral" is drawn from Catholicism, with "the painting clearly stands for the soul steadily stained by sin regardless od outward claims or the appearance of piety". If there is a moral in there, then I have never found it with any certainty, and I'm positive it isn't that simple...
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