Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young. London: Printed for Private Circulation, 1894. Pp 11. Bound in full maroon morocco boards, title in gilt along spine, inner dentelles and marbled endpapers, with the original publisher’s grey wrappers bound-in. A very good copy handsomely bound.

A piracy, actually printed circa 1905, and limited to seventy-five numbered copies.

Bibliographer Stuart Mason noted that this pirated version was likely published by Leonard Smithers (and/or “Wright and Jones”) around 1905. A slightly later pirated edition (c.1906) by Smithers included illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley.

The work is a collection of witty, often paradoxical, one-liners. The epigram, for Wilde, was not just a clever turn of phrase, but a vehicle for his “very brilliant philosophy.”  As Wilde wrote, “the way of paradoxes is the way of truth” – the contradictions in his sayings were deliberate tools to challenge conventional thought and reveal deeper insights.

Although a well-documented pirated edition of Wilde’s, this issue remains scarce and the present copy in a fine contemporary binding.