News

“This month’s “Leisure Reads” celebrates Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), the legendary playwright, novelist, and wit. Included in this month’s post is the play The Importance of Being Earnest, collections of fairy tales such as A House of Pomegranates, and, of course, The Picture of Dorian Gray—Wilde’s only novel.” Joshua Zeller

Print Books:

The Best Known Works of Oscar Wilde: including the poems, novels, plays, essays and fairy tales by Oscar Wilde

This anthology includes poetry, plays, and fairy tales of Wilde, as well as his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. Selected here are important poems such as The Ballad of Reading Gaol, “Charmides,” and The Sphinx; the plays Lady Windermere’s Fan, Salomé, A Woman of No Importance, and The Importance of Being Earnest; and the tales “The Happy Prince,” “The Nightingale and the Rose,” and “The Selfish Giant.”

The Happy Prince & Other Stories by Oscar Wilde

“The Happy Prince and Other Stories is a collection of short stories by Oscar Wilde, first published in 1888. The book contains five fairy tales, each infused with Wilde’s signature wit, rich imagery, and deep moral lessons. The stories are often melancholic, highlighting themes of sacrifice, love, and the contrast between wealth and poverty.” – Publisher’s Summary

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

“Here is Oscar Wilde's most brilliant tour de force, a witty and buoyant comedy of manners that has delighted millions in countless productions since its first performance in London's St. James' Theatre on February 14, 1895. The Importance of Being Earnest is celebrated not only for the lighthearted ingenuity of its plot, but for its inspired dialogue, rich with scintillating epigrams still savored by all who enjoy artful conversation. From the play's effervescent beginnings in Algernon Moncrieff's London flat to its hilarious denouement in the drawing room of Jack Worthing's country manor in Hertfordshire, this comic masterpiece keeps audiences breathlessly anticipating a new bon mot or a fresh twist of plot moment to moment.” – Publisher’s Summary

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

“In this celebrated work, his only novel, Wilde forged a devastating portrait of the effects of evil and debauchery on a young aesthete in late-19th-century England. Combining elements of the Gothic horror novel and decadent French fiction, the book centers on a striking premise: As Dorian Gray sinks into a life of crime and gross sensuality, his body retains perfect youth and vigor while his recently painted portrait grows day by day into a hideous record of evil, which he must keep hidden from the world. For over a century, this mesmerizing tale of horror and suspense has enjoyed wide popularity. It ranks as one of Wilde's most important creations and among the classic achievements of its kind.” – Publisher’s Summary

De Profundis by Oscar Wilde

“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....’” – Publisher’s Summary

Ebooks from Internet Archive:

A House of Pomegranates by Oscar Wilde

“The walls were hung with rich tapestries representing the Triumph of Beauty. A large press, inlaid with agate and lapis-lazuli, filled one corner, and facing the window stood a curiously wrought cabinet with lacquer panels of powdered and mosaiced gold, on which were placed some delicate goblets of Venetian glass, and a cup of dark-veined onyx. Pale poppies were broidered on the silk coverlet of the bed, as though they had fallen from the tired hands of sleep, and tall reeds of fluted ivory bare up the velvet canopy, from which great tufts of ostrich plumes sprang, like white foam, to the pallid silver of the fretted ceiling. A laughing Narcissus in green bronze held a polished mirror above its head. On the table stood a flat bowl of amethyst.” – from “The Young King,” in A House of Pomegranates

An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde

“An Ideal Husband revolves around a blackmail scheme that forces a married couple to reexamine their moral standards—providing, along the way, a wry commentary on the rarity of politicians who can claim to be ethically pure. A supporting cast of young lovers, society matrons, an overbearing father, and a formidable femme fatale continually exchange sparkling repartee, keeping the play moving at a lively pace.” – Publisher’s Summary

Intentions by Oscar Wilde

“‘My own experience is that the more we study Art, the less we care for Nature. What Art really reveals to us is Nature’s lack of design, her curious crudities, her extraordinary monotony, her absolutely unfinished condition. Nature has good intentions, of course, but, as Aristotle once said, she cannot carry them out. When I look at a landscape I cannot help seeing all its defects. It is fortunate for us, however, that Nature is so imperfect, as otherwise we should have had no art at all. Art is our spirited protest, our gallant attempt to teach Nature her proper place. As for the infinite variety of Nature, that is a pure myth. It is not to be found in Nature herself. It resides in the imagination, or fancy, or cultivated blindness of the man who looks at her.’” – from “The Decay of Lying,” in Intentions

Lady Windermere’s Fan by Oscar Wilde

“Beautiful, aristocratic, an adored wife and young mother, Lady Windermere is ‘a fascinating puritan’ whose severe moral code leads her to the brink of social suicide. The only one who can save her is the mysterious Mrs. Erlynne whose scandalous relationship with Lord Windermere has prompted her fatal impulse. And Mrs. Erlynne has a secret—a secret Lady Windermere must never know if she is to retain her peace of mind.” – Publisher’s Summary

Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime, The Portrait of Mr. W. H., & Other Stories by Oscar Wilde

“‘Well, he is not a bit like a cheiromantist [palm-reader]. I mean he is not mysterious, or esoteric, or romantic-looking. He is a little, stout man, with a funny, bald head, and great gold-rimmed spectacles; something between a family doctor and a country attorney. I’m really very sorry, but it is not my fault. People are so annoying. All my pianists look exactly like poets, and all my poets look exactly like pianists; and I remember last season asking a most dreadful conspirator to dinner, a man who had blown up ever so many people, and always wore a coat of mail, and carried a dagger up his shirt-sleeve; and do you know that when he came he looked just like a nice old clergyman, and cracked jokes all the evening? Of course, he was very amusing, and all that, but I was awfully disappointed; and when I asked him about the coat of mail, he only laughed, and said it was far too cold to wear in England. Ah, here is Mr. Podgers! Now, Mr. Podgers, I want you to tell the Duchess of Paisley's hand. Duchess, you must take your glove off. No, not the left hand, the other.’ / ‘Dear Gladys, I really don't think it is quite right,’ said the Duchess, feebly unbuttoning a rather soiled kid glove. / ‘Nothing interesting ever is,’ said Lady Windermere...” – from “Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime”

Poems by Oscar Wilde:

“This volume of Wilde's powerful poetry follows as closely as possible the chronological order of composition, highlighting autobiographical elements including the young Wilde's conflicting attitudes to Greece and Rome, pagan and Christian, and his fluctuating attraction to Roman Catholicism.... The poems reveal unexpected aspects of a literary chameleon usually identified with sparkling wit and social comedy.” – Publisher’s Summary

Salomé: A Tragedy in One Act by Oscar Wilde

“‘Thou wouldst have none of me, Jokanaan. Thou didst reject me. Thou didst speak evil words against me. Thou didst treat me as a harlot, as a wanton, me, Salomé, daughter of Herodias, Princess of Judæa! Well, Jokanaan, I still live, but thou, thou art dead, and thy head belongs to me. I can do with it what I will.” – from Salomé

In this short play originally written in French with Sarah Bernhardt in mind for the titular role, Oscar Wilde retells and expands the famous biblical story of the untimely end of John the Baptist (in the play called “Jokanaan”). In ornate and poetical—almost Symbolist and certainly Orientalist—dramatic prose, we are told of Salomé making advances towards Jokanaan, only to be brutally rebuffed—and of her revenge: in exchange for a sensual performance of the “Dance of the Seven Veils,” she asks King Herod for Jokanaan’s head on a silver platter. Famously, Wilde’s play could not be performed publicly in England, as biblical subject matter was at that time banned from the stage. In his preface to the English translation of Salomé (made by Lord Alfred Douglas), Robert Ross assures us that prior to its debut private performance in England in 1905, “[t]he obscure drama...had become for five years past part of the literature of Europe. It is performed regularly or intermittently in Holland, Sweden, Italy, France, and Russia, and it has been translated into every European language, including the Czech. It forms part of the repertoire of the German stage, where it is performed more often than any play by any English writer except Shakespeare.” Today, the strange and wonderful illustrations Aubrey Beardsley executed for the play’s publication are probably more famous than the text itself (see particularly “The Peacock Skirt”).

A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde

“A house party is in full swing at Lady Hunstanton’s stately country home. One of the guests is Gerard Arbuthnot, an earnest, upright young man whose prospects are limited, so he is overjoyed when the suave Lord Illingworth offers him employment as his secretary. His mother, however, implores him to refuse this brilliant entrée into sophisticated society. Should she reveal the shameful secret that she has kept hidden for twenty years and possibly destroy her beloved son’s happiness forever? How can she show Gerard that, contrary to appearances, Lord Illingworth is ‘a man of no importance’?” – Publisher’s Summary