Books by Oscar Wilde

Spellbound before his own portrait, Dorian Gray utters a fateful wish. In exchange for eternal youth he gives his soul, to be corrupted by the malign influence of his mentor, the aesthete and hedonist Lord Henry Wotton. The novel was met with moral outrage by contemporary critics who, dazzled perhaps by Wilde's brilliant style, may have confused the author with his creation, Lord Henry, to whom even Dorian protests, 'You cut life to pieces with your epigrams.'. Encouraged by Lord Henry to sub...

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 Wit & Wisdom of Oscar Wilde: A Treasury of Quotations Few writers in English are as quotable as Oscar Wilde. This treasury gathers hundreds of his best epigrams, aphorisms, and observations from his plays, essays, fiction, letters, and recorded conversation. Wilde turns his sparkling wit to art and morality, society and politics, love and marriage, and much else. Beneath the paradoxes lies a surprising wisdom about human nature that still rings true today. A delightful book to dip int...