Oscar Wilde was already one of the best known literary figures in Britain when he was persuaded to turn his extraordinary talents to the theatre. Between 1891 and 1895 he produced a sequence of distinctive plays which spearheaded the dramatic renaissance of the 1890s and retain their power today. T[...]
'The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.' When Dorian Gray has his portrait painted, he is captivated by his own beauty. Tempted by his world-weary, decadent friend Lord Henry Wotton, he wishes to stay forever young, and pledges his very soul to keep his good looks. Set in fin-de-[...]
Oscar Wilde was already one of the best-known literary figures in Britain when he was persuaded to turn his extraordinary talents to the theatre. Between 1891 and 1895 he produced a sequence of distinctive plays which spearheaded the dramatic renaissance of the 1890s and retain their power today. Th[...]
The tale of a youth whose features, year after year, retain the same appearance of innocent beauty while the shame of his abhorrent vices becomes mirrored on the features of his portrait.[...]
The truth is rarely pure and never simple, declares Algernon early in Act One of "The Importance of Being Earnest," and were it either, modern literature would be a complete impossibility. It is a moment of sly, winking self-regard on the part of the playwright, for "The Importance" is itself the so[...]
More than 120 years after Oscar Wilde submitted The Picture of Dorian Gray for publication in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, the uncensored version of his novel appears here for the first time in a paperback edition. This volume restores all of the material removed by the novel's first editor. Upon[...]
London, 1894. When it appears that the notorious Jack the Ripper has returned to London, Chief Constable Melville Macnaghten recruits his neighbor Oscar Wilde to help him solve the case, hoping the author's unparalleled knowledge of the London underworld might be exactly what the police need to fina[...]
"As London slides from one century into the next, a young man is cursed with the uncanny ability to remain both young and beautiful while descending into a life of heartless debauchery. With its glittering dialogue, provocative imagery and radical questioning of sexual and moral freedoms all brought[...]
Oscar Wilde's enduring masterpiece, this fable of innocence and corruption, purity and decay has become a true classic. The beautiful, narcissistic Dorian Gray, torn between the influence of cynical hedonist Lord Henry Wotton and tortured artist Basil Hallward, sells the beauty of his soul in exchan[...]
This ebook contains all of Oscar Wilde's plays (including the fragments), his only novel, his fairy tales and short stories, the poems, all of his essays, lectures, reviews, and other newspaper articles, based on the 1909 edition of his works. For easier navigation, there are tables of contents fo[...]
Gathers Wilde's essays and poems along with his novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and his plays, "Lady Windermere's Fan," and "The Importance of Being Earnest"[...]
It's widely known that Oscar Wilde was precociously intellectual, flamboyant, and hedonistic--but lesser so that he owed these characteristics to his parents. Oscar's mother, Lady Jane Wilde, rose to prominence as a political journalist, advocating a rebellion against colonialism in 1848. Proud, inv[...]
The Collins Complete Works of Oscar Wilde is the only truly complete and authoritative single-volume edition of Oscar Wilde's works, and is available in both paperback and this hardback edition. Continuously in print since 1948, the Collins Complete Works of Oscar Wilde has long been recognised as t[...]
HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. 'How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrid, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young...If it was only the other way!' Wilde's first and only published novel recounts the story of handsome Dorian Gray [...]
HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. 'Dear Prince, I must leave you, but I will never forget you, and next spring I will bring you back two beautiful jewels in place of those you have given away. The ruby shall be redder than a red rose, and the s[...]
A biography of Wilde based on the author's discovery of new source material, relating particularly to his sex life.[...]
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY IRVINE WELSH. Dorian is a good-natured young man until he discovers the power of his own exceptional beauty. As he gradually sinks deep into a frivolous, glamorous world of selfish luxury, he apparently remains physically unchanged by the stresses of his corrupt lifestyle and[...]
Includes the following works: Novels--The Portrait of Dorian Gray; Plays--Salome and The Importance of Being Earnest; Writings--De Profundis, Critic as Artist, and Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Very Young; and selections from Lady Windermere's Fan, An Ideal Husband, and A Woman of No I[...]
Selection includes "The Portrait of Mr W.H.", Wilde's defence of Dorian Gray, reviews, and the writings from "Intentions" (1891): "The Decay of Lying", "Pen, Pencil, Poison", and "The Critic as Artist". Wilde is familiar to us as the ironic critic behind the social comedies, as the creator of the be[...]
Wilde was both a glittering wordsmith and a social outsider. His drama emerges out of these two perhaps contradictory identities, combining epigrammatic brilliance and shrewd social observation. Includes "Lady Windermere's Fan", "Salome", "A Woman of No Importance", "An Ideal Husband", "A Florentine[...]
When the Selfish Giant builds a high wall round his lovely garden to keep the children out, the North Wind blows, the Frost comes and the Snow dances through the trees. The Giant wonders why Spring never comes to his cold, white garden. Then one day the Giant looks out to see a most wonderful sight.[...]