The Soul of Man Under Socialism

by Oscar Wilde

Poisoned Candy Press

2021, staple-bound

SKU: n/a

Reprint of "The Soul of Man Under Socialism" by Oscar Wilde, originally published in Fortnightly Review February, 1891. The cover design is taken from the Arthur L. Humphreys 1907 edition of the book. This is the full text.

"The Soul of Man Under Socialism" is an 1891 essay by Oscar Wilde in which he expounds a libertarian socialist worldview and a critique of charity. The writing of "The Soul of Man" followed Wilde's conversion to anarchist philosophy, following his reading of the works of Peter Kropotkin.

In "The Soul of Man" Wilde argues that, under capitalism, "the majority of people spoil their lives by an unhealthy and exaggerated altruism-are forced, indeed, so to spoil them": instead of realizing their true talents, they waste their time solving the social problems caused by capitalism, without taking their common cause away. Thus, caring people "seriously and very sentimentally set themselves to the task of remedying the evils that they see in poverty but their remedies do not cure the disease: they merely prolong it" because, as Wilde puts it, "the proper aim is to try and reconstruct society on such a basis that poverty will be impossible."

A full-color facsimile reprint of select passages from the text is available here.

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