More than 1000 ripostes, paradoxes, and epigrams on sin, society, genius, wealth, men, women, religion, America, education, and smoking: "Work is the curse of the drinking classes," "I can resist everything except temptation," etcetera. Also excerpts from his trial testimony, where the tragedy implicit in Wilde's humor is nowhere more vivid.

"In April 1895 Oscar Wilde brought a libel suit against the Marquess of Queensberry, the father of his youthful lover, who had publicly maligned him as a sodomite. In doing so, England's reigning man of letters set in motion a series of events that would culminate in his ruin and imprisonment. For within a year the bewildered Wilde himself was on trial for acts of "gross indecency" and - implicity - for a vision of art that outraged Victorian propriety."...

A comprehensive selection of his quips, aphorisms, and wit. One of the most well known personalities of his day, Oscar Wilde charmed and beguiled readers and audiences with his eloquent and biting observations, his smart quips, and the witticisms peppering his own speech and the speech of his characters. The Wisdom of Oscar Wilde collects both his best-loved quotes and longer excerpts, revealing a man wise to human nature and his times, and never...

A witty and modern remake of Oscar Wilde's novella about an American family who moves into a haunted English country house. From the makers of Father Brown. Sir Simon de Canterville is the premier ghost in the British Isles, and exquisitely proud of his dastardly reputation. So when the Otis family leaves America and moves into Canterville's abandoned family estate, Sir Simon prepares to give them the fright of their life. There's just one problem....

Jeff Nunokawa is Associate Professor of English at Princeton University and the author of The Afterlife of Property: Domestic Security and the Victorian Novel (Princeton). What if our strongest urges could be divested of their power to compel yet retain their power to fascinate us? What if our most basic appetites could be translated from the realm of bodily necessity to the sphere of artistic freedom? Jeff Nunokawa traces the variety of social...

Lady Windermere misinterprets her husband's interest in an older woman, Mrs. Erlynne, causing a rift that could lead to both marital and societal ruin. Lady Windermere's Fan Is an intriguing tale that examines intention versus outcome in a world driven by perception. Lady Windermere is a young wife who's concerned by her husband's connection to the mysterious, Mrs. Erlynne. She believes the woman is a threat to her marriage and livelihood. Despite...

This Vintage edition of The Plays of Oscar Wilde contains the plays that made Wilde one of the most important dramatists of his time, including The Importance of Being Earnest, one of the great works of modern literature. Oscar Wilde's plays demonstrate once again why their author must be seen as both an inaugurator and a master of modernism. In his best work, the subversive insights embedded in his wit continue to challenge our common assumptions....

This is the first large-scale edition of Wilde's work to pay proper tribute to the true breadth of his talent. Each of the literary genres which he mastered is represented. In her 'Introduction and Notes, ' Isobel Murray provides a fascinating insight into Wilde's phenomenal knowledge of English, American, French, and Classical literature, enabling the reader to appreciate and admire fully the range of literary and mythological references which enrich...

"Colm Tóibín begins his incisive, revelatory Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know with a walk through the Dublin streets where he went to university--a wide-eyed boy from the country--and where three Irish literary giants also came of age: Wilde, Yeats, and Joyce. Elegant, profound, and riveting, Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know illuminates not only the complex relationships between three of the greatest writers in the English language and their fathers, but...

Constance Wilde " ... had held a privileged position in society. Part of a gilded couple, she was a popular children's author, a fashion icon, and a leading campaigner for women's rights. A founding member of the magical society The Golden Dawn, her pioneering and questioning spirit encouraged her to sample some of the more controversial aspects of her time ... But [in the spring of 1895] Constance's entire life was eclipsed by scandal. Forced to...