Oscar Wilde

One of the greatest playwrights in the English language, Oscar Wilde was also a legendary wit and a poetic provocateur. He was put on trial and sentenced to two years of hard labor for "gross indecency" by the same English society whose hypocrisy he had put on stage to great effect. His refusal to renounce his homosexuality and love for Lord Alfred Douglas ("Bosie") made him first a martyr and later an icon for free love and a myth onto himself. This edition of surviving letters that Wilde wrote to his "own dear darling boy" is a testament to the enduring power and radical force of love. Included are the introductory essays by legendary bookseller A. S. W. Rosenbach and philanthropist William Clark, who first published these letters in 1924, and a little-known letter from Douglas to Wilde.

The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personae to escape social obligations. Its funny dialogue have helped make The Importance of Being Earnest Wilde's most enduringly popular play. Despite the play's early success, Wilde's notoriety and prison caused the play to be closed after 86 performances. After his release from prison, he published the play from exile in Paris. The play is now considered Wilde's masterpiece. Apart from of a number of radio, opera, musical, and "made-for-television" versions, The Importance of Being Earnest has been adapted for the English-language cinema at least three times. "More humorous dealing with theatrical conventions it would be difficult to imagine. Mr Oscar Wilde has decorated a humour that is Gilbertian with innumerable spangles of that wit that is all his own" -- H. G. Wells

This celebrated masterpiece is Oscar Wilde's only novel. A mesmerizing tale of horror and suspense, it has endured due to its artful prose and the philosophical questions it raises, as well as the scandal it caused upon its initial publication in 1890. Written in his distinctively dazzling manner and combining aspects of a Gothic horror novel and decadent French fiction, Wilde forges a devastating account of the effects of evil and depravity on a fashionable young man in late 19th century England who sells his soul in exchange for eternal youth and beauty. A concept that Wilde derived from the German legend of Faust, Gray is the subject of a portrait by painter Basil Hallward who deems his subject's beauty to be inconceivably great. Rather than having to age himself, an egotistical Dorian wishes for the painting to age instead of him so that he can retain his youthful good looks. Gray plunges into a life of vice and debauchery with its sole aim being pleasure. His body retains perfect youth and vigor while the portrait changes day by day into a ghastly chronicle of evil, documenting each of his sins with its appearance, which he must keep hidden from the world. This spellbinding novel tale that warns its readers of the dangers that come with narcissism, self-indulgence, and ignorance still ranks as one of Wilde's most important works. Of Gray's relationship to him, Wilde noted "Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks me: Dorian what I would like to be--in other ages, perhaps."

The Picture of Dorian Gray is a Gothic and philosophical novel by Oscar Wilde, first published complete in the July 1890 issue of Lippincott's Monthly Magazine. Dorian Gray is the subject of a full-length portrait in oil by Basil Hallward, an artist impressed and infatuated by Dorian's beauty; he believes that Dorian's beauty is responsible for the new mood in his art as a painter. Through Basil, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton, and he soon is enthralled by the aristocrat's hedonistic world view: that beauty and sensual fulfilment are the only things worth pursuing in life. Newly understanding that his beauty will fade, Dorian expresses the desire to sell his soul, to ensure that the picture, rather than he, will age and fade. The wish is granted, and Dorian pursues a libertine life of varied amoral experiences while staying young and beautiful; all the while, his portrait ages and records every sin. Fearing the story was indecent, prior to publication the magazine's editor deleted roughly five hundred words without Wilde's knowledge. The longer and revised version of The Picture of Dorian Gray published in book form in 1891 featured an aphoristic preface-a defence of the artist's rights and of art for art's sake-based in part on his press defences of the novel the previous year. The content, style, and presentation of the preface made it famous in its own right, as a literary and artistic manifesto.

The story concerns Lady Windermere, who suspects that her husband is having an affair with another woman. She confronts him with it but although he denies it, he invites the other woman, Mrs. Erlynne, to his wife's birthday ball. Angered by her husband's supposed unfaithfulness, Lady Windermere decides to leave her husband for another lover. After discovering what has transpired, Mrs. Erlynne follows Lady Windermere and attempts to persuade her to return to her husband and in the course of this, Mrs. Erlynne is discovered in a compromising position. It is then revealed Mrs. Erlynne is Lady Windermere's mother, who abandoned her family twenty years before the time the play is set. Mrs. Erlynne sacrifices herself and her reputation to save her daughter's marriage.

A luxurious gift edition of Oscar Wilde's classic novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, presented with Wibalin binding and gold foil embossing. In this cautionary tale, the handsome Dorian Gray wishes that his portrait should age rather than himself, and then launches on a life of excess and depravity, with shocking consequences. This timeless novel about the frailty of human beauty and sensual experience and the futility of vanity remains as powerful today as when it was first published in 1891. ABOUT THE SERIES: Arcturus Ornate Classics are beautifully bound editions of iconic literary works across history. These compact, foil-embossed hardbacks are printed using deluxe ivory paper and make the perfect gift.

This book has been considered important throughout the human history, and so that this work is never forgotten we have made efforts in its preservation by republishing this book in a modern format for present and future generations. This whole book has been reformatted, retyped and designed. These books are not made of scanned copies of their original work and hence the text is clear and readable.

Oscar Wilde's social comedy, An Ideal Husband, has charmed and challenged audiences since its glamorous London opening in 1895, which the Prince of Wales attended. When a prominent politician is blackmailed over a youthful indiscretion, society is forced to examine whether idealized notions of goodness and morality serve to uphold society or become tools of destruction. In the context of contemporary quests to grapple with the past honestly, Wilde's sparkling and profound play is unparalleled in beckoning us to love the world "in all its tainted glory." This Warbler Classics edition includes an afterword by Ulrich Baer and George Bernard Shaw's review of the original stage production.