The Sphinx Without a Secret by Oscar Wilde

Teddyrose@1

14 years ago

It’s back to the classics for me this Monday. After reading The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, I vowed to read more by Oscar Wilde.

Back in July, 2009 I won a copy of ‘The Model Millionaire’ by Oscar Wilde from Jessica over at The Blue Stocking Society. It’s a collection of short stories. I know it been awhile since I won it but I finally cracked it open and read the first story.

The Sphinx Without a Secret is a very short story, all of seven pages. It opens at a outdoor cafe in Paris.

Lord Murchison was walking by and saw an un-named friend sitting at a table and joined him. He told his friend a strange story about a woman he had intended to marry.

She was very secretive about where she went so, one day Lord Murchison followed her. To his disbelief, he followed her to a boarding house Of course, Lord Murchison assumed she had a another lover and confronted her. She confessed that she rented a room at the boarding house but denied that she was meeting another man there. Lord Murchison didn’t believe her and broke off their engagement. He later finds out…

I enjoyed this story. It was a sedate little piece but was well written and quite clever. You can read it on the web, here.

Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an I rish writer, poet, and prominent aesthete. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London’s most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. Today he is remembered for his epigrams, plays and the tragedy of his imprisonment, followed by his early death.

If you would like to participate in Short Story Mondays, go to John of The Book Mine Set. He has a short story review every Monday and a place for you to link your short story review. Come join in the fun!
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