Oscar Wilde

<p>The complete short stories of the masterful Irish writerFairy tales, ghost stories, detective fiction and comedies of manners—the stories collected in this volume made Oscar Wilde's name as a writer of fiction, showing breathtaking dexterity in a wide range of literary styles. Victorian moral justice is comically inverted in "Lord Arthur Savile's Crime" and "The Canterville Ghost," and society's materialism comes under sharp, humorous criticism in "The Model Millionaire," while "The Happy Prince" and "The Nightingale and the Rose" are hauntingly melancholic in their magical evocations of selfless love. These small masterpieces convey the brilliance of Wilde's vision, exploring complex moral issues through an elegant juxtaposition of wit and sentiment.</p> <p>For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.</p> <p>Edited with an Introduction by Ian Small.

The Collins Complete Works of Oscar Wilde is the only truly complete and authoritative single-volume edition of Oscar Wilde’s works. Continuously in print since 1948, the Collins Complete Works of Oscar Wilde has long been recognised as the most comprehensive and authoritative single-volume collection of Wilde’s texts available, containing his only novel, The Portrait of Dorian Gray, as well as his plays, stories, poems, essays and letters, all in their most authoritative texts. Also included is a comprehensive bibliography of works by and about Oscar Wilde, and a chronological table of his life and work.

SUMMARY: Written from Wilde's prison cell at Reading Gaol to his friend and lover Lord Alfred Douglas, "De Profundis" explodes the conventions of the traditional love letter and offers a scathing indictment of Douglas's behavior, a mournful elegy for Wilde's own lost greatness, and an impassioned plea for reconciliation. At once a bracingly honest account of ruinous attachment and a profound meditation on human suffering, "De Profundis" is a classic of gay literature. Richard Ellmann calls "De Profundis" "a love letter...One of the greatest, and the longest, ever written." This Modern Library Paperback Classics edition contains newly commissioned notes. "From the Trade Paperback edition."

A definitive new collection of Oscar Wilde’s best prison letters and poetry, with an introduction by Colm Toibin Bankrupt and with his reputation in ruins, Oscar Wilde wrote the astonishing letter “De Profundis” to his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, while in prison. Editor Colm Toibin, the acclaimed author of The Blackwater Lightship, The Master, and Brooklyn, describes it as Wilde’s “greatest piece of prose writing.” Also included is “The Ballad of Reading Gaol,” Wilde’s most famous poem and one of the greatest ballads in the English language, as well as other letters Wilde wrote from prison that reveal the true effects of incarceration on the people he met. Based on the Penguin Classics edition of the Complete Letters, this collection features a new introduction, notes, and appendices. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

The incomparable Oscar Wilde has delighted audiences for many, many years, and now you can enjoy his writing in its entirety on your eReading device. This is the COMPLETE WORKS of the great literary giant with bonus texts. (Current version: 5)Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our vast range of titles. Features:* annotated with introductions to the plays, novel and other texts* features many images relating to Wilde, his life and works* illustrated with images of how the books first appeared, giving your eReader a taste of the Victorian texts* ALL of the plays, with excellent formatting* BOTH Wilde's original French version of 'Salome' and Lord Douglas' (his lover) translation in English - available in no other digital collection* two rare unfinished plays* ALL of the short stories with the original beautiful illustrations* BOTH versions of 'Dorian Gray' - the original magazine version and the original book version with extra chapters, all with separate contents tables* the COMPLETE poetry, with special Chronological and Alphabetical contents tables ñ find that special poem quickly!* Every non-fiction essay - even the rare ones Wilde wrote in prison* the rare erotic novel 'Teleny' attributed to Wilde, but now classed as apocryphal - judge for yourself - did Wilde have a hand in writing this rare text?* ALL of the short stories and short story collections* boasts three biographical works exploring Wilde's life, including the famous two volume OSCAR WILDE, HIS LIFE AND CONFESSIONS by FRANK HARRIS* scholarly ordering of texts into chronological order and literary genres* features the complete and unabridged version of DE PROFUNDIS, often missed out of collections* UPDATED with rare non-fiction texts* UPDATED with a special Journalism section, featuring Wilde's reviews and articlesCONTENTSThe PlaysVERATHE DUCHESS OF PADUALADY WINDERMERE'S FANA WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCESALOM…SALOME (ENGLISH VERSION)AN IDEAL HUSBANDTHE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNESTLA SAINTE COURTISANEA FLORENTINE TRAGEDYThe PoetryTHE COMPLETE POETRY IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDERTHE COMPLETE POETRY IN ALPHABETICAL ORDERThe NovelTHE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAYTHE ORIGINAL 13 CHAPTER VERSIONTHE REVISED 20 CHAPTER VERSIONThe Short StoriesTHE PORTRAIT OF MR. W. H.THE HAPPY PRINCE AND OTHER TALESTHE HAPPY PRINCETHE NIGHTINGALE AND THE ROSETHE SELFISH GIANTTHE DEVOTED FRIENDTHE REMARKABLE ROCKETA HOUSE OF POMEGRANATESTHE YOUNG KINGTHE BIRTHDAY OF THE INFANTATHE FISHERMAN AND HIS SOULTHE STAR-CHILDLORD ARTHUR SAVILE'S CRIME AND OTHER STORIESLORD ARTHUR SAVILEíS CRIMETHE CANTERVILLE GHOSTTHE SPHINX WITHOUT A SECRETTHE MODEL MILLIONAIREThe Non-FictionTHE DECAY OF LYINGPEN, PENCIL AND POISON ó A STUDY IN GREENTHE CRITIC AS ARTISTTHE TRUTH OF MASKSTHE RISE OF HISTORICAL CRITICISMTHE ENGLISH RENAISSANCE OF ARTHOUSE DECORATIONART AND THE HANDICRAFTSMANLECTURE TO ART STUDENTSLONDON MODELSPOEMS IN PROSETHE SOUL OF MAN UNDER SOCIALISMPHRASES AND PHILOSOPHIES FOR THE USE OF THE YOUNGA FEW MAXIMS FOR THE INSTRUCTION OF THE OVER-EDUCATEDDE PROFUNDISOSCAR WILDE'S LETTER TO ROBERT BROWNINGPERSONAL IMPRESSIONS OF AMERICATHE DECORATIVE ARTSTHE HOUSE BEAUTIFULTHE TRUTH OF MASKSThe JournalismLIST OF ARTICLES AND REVIEWSApocryphaTELENYThe BiographiesOSCAR WILDE, HIS LIFE AND CONFESSIONS BY FRANK HARRISMEMORIES OF OSCAR WILDE BY G. BERNARD SHAWOSCAR WILDE: AN IDLER'S IMPRESSION BY EDGAR SALTUS

<p>This comprehensive collection showcases Oscar Wilde's brilliant storytelling skills and his amazing stylistic versatility, ranging from fairy tales and ghost stories to detective yarns and comedies of manners. It includes the complete texts of "The Happy Prince and Other Tales," "A House of Pomegranates," "Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories," "Poems in Prose,"and the critical essay "The Portrait of Mr. W. H."Originally published in the late 1880s and early 1890s, these tales predate Wilde's fame as a dramatist. When he wrote them, he was best known among fashionable London society as a drawing-room raconteur. Many of the character types now familiar from his comedies first emerged in these stories, along with his gifted uses of parody, melodrama, paradox, and irony. Even more significantly, they reflect the author's preoccupation with opposites — idealistic love and desire, art and life, sincerity and artifice, innocence and sin, altruism and greed, and honesty and deceit — offering captivating expressions of the themes that dominated Wilde's life and thought.</p> <p>Ranging from fairy tales to detective yarns, this collection showcases Wilde's brilliant storytelling skills and stylistic versatility. Contents include the complete texts of "The Happy Prince and Other Tales," "A House of Pomegranates," "Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories," "Poems in Prose," and "The Portrait of Mr. W. H."

EDITORIAL REVIEW: Witty and buoyant comedy of manners is brilliantly plotted from its effervescent first act to its hilarious denouement, and filled with some of literature’s most famous epigrams. Widely considered Wilde’s most perfect work, the play is reprinted here from an authoritative early British edition. Note to the Dover Edition. Witty and buoyant comedy of manners is brilliantly plotted from its effervescent first act to its hilarious denouement, and filled with some of literature's most famous epigrams. Widely considered Wilde's most perfect work, the play is reprinted here from an authoritative early British edition. Note to the Dover Edition. ### Review "In short, there is material aplenty here for the average reader and considerable matter for the specialist." -- *English Literature in Transition 1880-1920* ### Book Description A collection of literature anthologies and reference books for Key Stage 3 onwards.

A universal favorite, The Importance of Being Earnest displays Oscar Wilde's theatrical genius at its brilliant best. Subtitled "A Trivial Comedy for Serious People", this hilarious attack on Victorian manners and morals turns a pompous world on its head, lets duplicity lead to happiness, and makes riposte the highest form of art. Also included in this special collection are Wilde's first comedy success, Lady Windermere's Fan, and his richly sensual melodrama, Salome.

"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 realising 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. " Wilde did not see kindness or altruism per se as a problem; what worried him was its misapplication in a way which leaves unaddressed the roots of the problem: "the altruistic virtues have really prevented the carrying out of this aim. Just as the worst slave-owners were those who were kind to their slaves, and so prevented the horror of the system being realised by those who suffered from it, and understood by those who contemplated it, so, in the present state of things in England, the people who do most harm are the people who try to do most good" while preserving the system. Wilde's deepest concern was with man's soul; when he analysed poverty and its causes and effects in "The Soul of Man under Socialism" it was not simply the material well-being of the poor that distressed him, but how society does not allow them to reach a form of self-understanding and enlightenment. He adopted Jesus of Nazareth as a symbol of the supreme individualist.[4] Wilde advocated socialism, which, he argued, "will be of value simply because it will lead to individualism" and "substituting cooperation for competition will restore society to its proper condition ... and ensure material well being for each member of the community. " Wilde examined the political conditions necessary for full self-development and devotion to art, arguing, "Art is individualism, and individualism is a disturbing and disintegrating force. There lies its immense value. For what it seeks to disturb is monotony of type, slavery of custom, tyranny of habit, and the reduction of man to the level of a machine. "[5] 1895 book edition under the truncated title "The Soul of Man," "privately printed" in 50 copies at Chiswick Press, 30 May 1895, five days after Wilde's conviction for gross indecency. He made a point of delineating "individual" socialism from "authoritarian" (government-centered) socialism, advocating a more libertarian approach, "What is needed is Individualism. If the Socialism is Authoritarian; if there are Governments armed with economic power as they are now with political power; if, in a word, we are to have Industrial Tyrannies, then the last state of man will be worse than the first. " In a socialist society, people will have the possibility to realise their talents; "each member of the society will share in the general prosperity and happiness of the society. " Wilde added that "upon the other hand, Socialism itself will be of value simply because it will lead to individualism" since individuals will no longer need to fear poverty or starvation. This individualism would, in turn, protect against governments leveraging their power over their citizens. However, Wilde advocated non-capitalist individualism: "of course, it might be said that the Individualism generated under conditions of private property is not always, or even as a rule, of a fine or wonderful type" a critique which is "quite true. "

This volume contains everything Wilde wrote in dramatic formWilde's masterpiece The Importance of Being Earnest is printed here in its usual three-act form, but with an appendix containing the best material from the original four-act version. Also included are his three 'problem plays', Lady Windermere's Fan, A Woman of No Importance and An Ideal Husband, as well as his once-banned Salome and several other little-known but fascinating dramas. H. Montgomery Hyde, an acknowledged expert on Wilde and author of several books on him, provides an introduction to Wilde's life and work with special attention to the composition and performance of the plays. "Wilde is to me our only thorough playwright. He plays with everything: with wit, with philosophy, with drama, with actors and audiences, with the whole theatre" (George Bernard Shaw)