Books

First edition, from a stated limitation of 200 unnumbered copies. Wilde's poem, together with Charles Ricketts's art nouveau illustrations, made even W. E. Henley, Wilde's severest critic, describe The Sphinx as "about as fin-de-Siècle a business as you ever saw" (Frankel, p. 155). Ricketts first met Wilde in 1889 and during the next couple of years designed either parts or the entirety of several of the author's works, including The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), Poems (1892; limited edition), Intentions (1891), and Lord Arthur Savile's Crime (1891) (Hart-Davies, p. 249). While predominantly working with book illustration and design, Ricketts was also famed for his theatre designs and costumes, and he contributed to the first English production of Wilde's Salomé in 1906. As recorded by James G. Nelson, alongside the 200 copies printed in the stated edition, a further 103 copies were printed although these were mostly left unbound. Small quarto. Original full vellum, pictorial decorations by Ricketts to spine and covers in gilt, all edges untrimmed, printed throughout in black, green, and red. Title page design, one half-page illustration and eight full-page illustrations by Charles Ricketts. Ownership signature to front free endpaper and ownership inscription to preliminary blank. Vellum lightly soiled, as usual, and some occasional internal foxing; a fresh and very good copy with bright gilt to the covers. Nicholas Frankel, Oscar Wilde's Decorated Books (2003); Mason 361; James G. Nelson, A Checklist of Early Bodley Head Books: 1889-1894.

The Sphinx is a one-act play written by Oscar Wilde. It's a dramatic monologue by a woman who laments the absence of her lover, who has died. The richness of the symbolic imagery intertwines themes of love with the mystery of the Sphinx.