Reviews

Saloma by Oscar Wilde

emiliatara's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense

4.0

kasmolenaar's review against another edition

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3.0

Het toneelstuk is oké, maar de illustraties zijn werkelijk prachtig.

rhodamae's review against another edition

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dark fast-paced

4.25

cami2deschenes's review against another edition

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4.0

This has haunted me since the moment I read it.

larakosi7's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

blueyorkie's review against another edition

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5.0

Salome is the daughter of Herodiade, Herod's new wife, Galileo's tetrarch. She's beautiful; she dances well, and she charms. In a shaft well kept, she hears the voice of Iokanaan, imprisoned because he says very disgusting things. Some say he's the messiah. Salome wants to see him. And despite the soldiers' reluctance, despite the threats of Iokanaan himself, despite the horrors that he prophesies and which everyone says concern Herodiade, the mother of Salome, she wants to see him, talk to him, kiss him. He refuses. Herod and Herodiade then arrive. Herod devours his daughter-in-law with his eyes, which his wife has blamed him since. He then begs her to dance for him at any price.
The biblical episode is exceptionally well known. But Oscar Wilde concealed the identity of the prophet St. John the Baptist by giving him his Hebrew name. Therefore, The Catholic tradition is carefully distant, and the character appears almost ridiculous, disturbing, enlightened, and out of the world. But what surprised me most was the character of Salome, which surprisingly worked. We know Herod's lubricity; we see the cruelty of Herodiade, who wished for the prophet's death. It is even assumed that it is to go in the direction of his mother, and Salome will ask for his head. Now, she becomes manipulative. She tries to seduce the prophet, to subjugate him by charm as by insults, and it is because he refuses her kiss that condemns him. Finally, on her own, she decides to ask for the head of Jean-Baptiste in a relentless scene where Herod repeatedly lays all the world's riches at Salome's feet. Begging her to ask for something else, she replies, laconic and nagging: "I want the head of Iokanaan." Where she could still be the unwitting object of so much passion, Oscar Wilde makes her a femme fatale and dangerous of her own free will.

heffa's review against another edition

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2.0

Boring. Repetitive. I'd look into what the point of this play was, but I really don't care enough.

books_and_tea33's review against another edition

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dark funny fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

katya_m's review against another edition

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A opção de Strauss de traduzir ipsis verbis o texto de Wilde, Salomé, para encenar a magnífica ópera com mesmo nome foi o motivo primeiro que me levou a pegar neste livro.
A imagem da princesa da Judeia é todo um mundo de estudo em história da arte a que já estava habituada, mas as cenas da ópera encenada por Weigl perseguem-me desde que primeiro a vi. E o poder das palavras que profere Salomé é de tal ordem que tinha mesmo de olhar o texto.

Nada ainda está por dizer sobre a escolha de Wilde (e posteriormente Strauss): a sua versão da história é blasfema - importe isso para leigos não -; a corte do rei Herodes é a epítome da consumação dos valores religiosos; o rei é um pai incestuoso; a rainha uma prostituta e a filha uma assassina necrófila que comete a heresia de profanar o corpo de um profeta (e diga-se também que o próprio São João Batista não sai muito bem no retrato)...

Mas há qualquer coisa em Salomé de profundamente atraente, magnético que nos obriga a fechar os olhos à baixeza deste mundo em que habita. Sensual, poderosa, Salomé partilha da péssima fama de outras mulheres fortes apresentadas em narrativas bíblicas - na sua decadência, como na escrita de Wilde, reside o seu poder.

Prefiro a maturidade da tentativa de Flaubert sobre este tema, em Herodíade, mas sem Wilde não existiria para mim imagem de Salomé.

nancyboy's review against another edition

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2.0

Wtf did i just read??