WILDE, Oscar; BEARDSLEY, Aubrey (illus.).

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Salomé. First edition in English, the first to feature Beardsley's elegant art nouveau illustrations. "If Le Morte Darthur made Beardsley known, his designs for the first edition in English of Wilde's Salomé made him notorious, and it remains the book of which most people think when his name is mentioned" (Ray).Salomé was published in French in 1893. This English translation by Lord Alfred Douglas was published the following year in a run of 500 trade copies, as here, and 100 on large paper. The premiere took place on 11 February 1896 at the Comédie-Parisienne; the Lord Chamberlain cited Protestant Reformation laws banning religious plays to restrict the public staging in Britain. An opera version was sanctioned for performance in 1910, though the play itself had to be staged privately until the first public performance at the Savoy Theatre in 1931.

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