Oscar Wilde

In 1895, Oscar Wilde was sentenced to two years of hard labor as punishment for having engaged in homosexual acts. While serving out his sentence at Reading Gaol in Berkshire, Wilde witnessed the execution by hanging of a young soldier who had murdered his wife by slashing her throat. Profoundly shaken by the execution and the crime that preceded it, Wilde composed this elegiac poem centered on the haunting refrain, "Yet each man kills the thing

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In 'The Critic as Artist'--arguably the most complete exploration of his aesthetic thinking, and certainly the most entertaining--Oscar Wilde harnesses his famous wit to demolish the supposed boundary between art and criticism.00Subtitled 'Upon the Importance of Doing Nothing and Discussing Everything', the essay takes the form of a leisurely dialogue between two characters: Ernest, who insists upon Wilde's own belief in art's freedom from societal...

The Importance of Being Earnest and Four Other Plays, by Oscar Wilde, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics:

New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars

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This final play from the pen of Oscar Wilde is a stylish send-up of Victorian courtship and manners, complete with assumed names, mistaken lovers, and a lost handbag. Jack and Algernon are best friends, both wooing ladies who think their names are Ernest, "that name which inspires absolute confidence." Wilde's effervescent wit, scathing social satire, and high farce make this one of the most cherished plays in the English language. Includes an

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This collection includes Oscar Wilde's only novel, "The Picture of Dorian Gray," as well as all his stories, plays, and poems.

Wilde's drama combines epigrammatic brilliance and shrewd social observation. This collection of his plays includes 'Lady Windermere's Fan', 'Salome', 'A Woman of No Importance', 'An Ideal Husband' and 'The Importance of Being Earnest'.

The classic Oscar Wilde story of the selfish giant who won't let anyone into his garden - until his heart is softened by one very special little boy, illustrated with great drama.

And the Giant's heart melted as he looked out. 'How selfish I have been!' he said; ' . . . I will knock down the wall, and my garden shall be the children's playground for ever and ever.' The five stories in his collection for children show Wilde at his best; moving, witty and wise. In The Happy Prince , a grand but lonely statue recruits a swallow to help him give to people in need; In The Nightingale and the Rose, a small bird makes a great sacrifice...

An Ideal Husband is an 1895 comedic stage play by Oscar Wilde which revolves around blackmail and political corruption, and touches on the themes of public and private honour. The action is set in London, in "the present", and takes place over the course of twenty-four hours. "Sooner or later," Wilde notes, "we shall all have to pay for what we do." But he adds that, "No one should be entirely judged by their past." Together with The Importance of...

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 Importance. The Picture of Dorian Gray, Salome and The Importance of Being Earnest are accompanied by Wilde's prison memoirs, poems, and selected correspondence....