He was brilliant, flamboyant, and unconventional, one of the great figures of his--or any other--age. Although Oscar Wilde's reputation now rests primarily on his sparkling, sophisticated plays with their razor-sharp wit, his body of work goes far beyond even those. Here, in one volume, is the sum of his artistic genius: all his stories, plays, fairy tales, and poems, complete with period illustrations. To find evidence of Wilde's theatrical savvy, one need look no further than The Importance of Being Earnest and An Ideal Husband, both of which satirize and humorously highlight the hypocrisy of Victorian life. The Picture of Dorian Gray captures a profound knowledge of the depths to which the human soul can plunge, and in the years since it was written, its final moments have lost none of their power. In his fairy stories, including The Happy Prince and Other Tales, written for his own children, Wilde reveals heights of tenderness and beauty. There are classics like the Canterville Ghost and more-more than 850 pages worth! 864 pages (50 in color), 5 3/4 x 8 1/4.
Oscar Fingall O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born in Dublin in 1854. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin and Magdalen College, Oxford where, a disciple of Pater, he founded an aesthetic cult. In 1884 he married Constance Lloyd, and his two sons were born in 1885 and 1886.
His novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), and social comedies Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), A Woman of No Importance (1893), An Ideal Husband (1895), and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), established his reputation. In 1895, following his libel action against the Marquess of Queesberry, Wilde was sentenced to two years' imprisonment for homosexual conduct, as a result of which he wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), and his confessional letter De Profundis (1905). On his release from prison in 1897 he lived in obscurity in Europe, and died in Paris in 1900.
