Collected Works of Oscar Wilde

In print since 1948, this is a single-volume collection of Oscar Wilde's texts. It contains his only novel, "The Portrait of Dorian Gray" as well as his plays, stories, poems, essays and letters. Illustrated with many photographs, the book includes introductions to each section by Wilde's grandon, Merlin Holoand, Owen Dudley Edwards, Declan Kibertd and Terence Brown. A comprehensive bibliography of works by and about Oscar Wilde together with a chronological table of his life and work are also included.

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born on October 16, 1854, in Dublin. His parents were William (afterwards Sir William) Wilde, a renowned ear and eye surgeon, and Jane Francesca Wilde, who, under the name 'Speranza', wrote political articles for the Young Ireland movement. Oscar was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and at Magdalen College, Oxford. He became a leading light of the so-called 'Aesthetic Movement' (satirised by Gilbert and Sullivan in Patience) and was recognised as one of the most prominent wits of the age. Plays such as Lady Windermere's Fan (1893) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) established him as the most important contemporary dramatist; other great works included several children's stories, such as The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1891), and much important art criticism. He was imprisoned for homosexuality in 1895, serving his time in Wandsworth Prison and Reading Gaol. His wife obtained a legal separation from him, and he never saw her or his two sons again. On his release in 1897, he settled in France, and died from cerebral meningitis in Paris, in 1900