Oscar Wilde’s notebook on philosophy comprises 304 pages of quotations, paraphrases, and aphoristic reflections on the history of philosophy. He kept the notebook between the years 1876 and 1878 while attending Magdalen College, Oxford, in preparation for the Greats examination, in which he received a rare “double-first.”

The sample pages below concern such topics as mysticism, utilitarianism, and pleasure and desire. The entries demonstrate Wilde’s fluency in Greek.

Mysticism

Utilitarianism

Pleasure and Desire

Call number: Wilde W6721 M3 N9112 [1874/6] Cased