Oscar Wilde Books

Coates gives the reader the essentials in this "uncovered" edition. While I would have preferred an index, this collection serves as a wonderful primary source for the student of gay history, and a great read for anyone interested in Oscar Wilde or one of the earliest modern legal defenses of homosexuality. Despite surprising claims that the "love that dare not speak its name" defense is *not* a defense of homosexuality, even the most cursory read will show it is a brilliant defense of homosexual love in the classical (age-differentiated) sense, which was the very type of romantic/sexual relationship Oscar Wilde and Bosie Douglas had formed.

One of the stories that I will always cherish, that I remember being told in my youth, is this one. I've heard it many times : at home from my mother (saturday morning, in a low soft voice, in the kitchen, drinking soup), in the classroom from my teacher English Literature, at the university, and from my wife. So often we tell to each other, quiet but sad, with a dark smile : 'I have read all the wise men have written and all the secrets of philosophy are mine, yet for the lack of a red rose my life is made wretched' (I don't know if it's quoted without mistakes). Everything we have is nothing compared to the love we lack, and even if we sacrifice a lot for it, it doesn't change but for a moment. The Nightingale, thinking she could solve it all by sacrificing herself, is pure tragic, and that gripped me most in the tale. I'm afraid I can't remember being told the Selfish Giant. I first heard it in the recent film 'Wilde'. Written for children, I think these tales are suitable for everyone who loves to laugh and cry without having too much troubles on their minds, and by learning a great deal about live through the eyes of Oscar Wilde. But are the eyes of Oscar Wilde those of the Selfish Giant or of the Nightingale ? One of the few questions that deserves no answer !

Oscar Wilde's first play, written in 1880-it is described by Wilde's son Vyvyan Holland - in the introduction to "Complete Works of Oscar Wilde" as " A rather immature play, which ran for one week in New York, and never reached the boards in London".

It is weak and clichéd in some parts but not without flashes of brilliance in others. Beautiful peasant girl, Vera Sabouroff joins a fanatical band of Nihilists, to avenge her bother, Dmitri, who is excelled by the Tsar. She becomes their heroin and Russia's most wanted assassin. The Nihilists are joined by Tsarevitch Alexis, who after the assassination of his father, becomes Tsar, and is thus marked for assassination by the Nihilists. Vera, who has fallen in love with the Tsarevitch, is chosen to carry out the operation to assassinate Alexis, who has embarked on a string of reforms. What follows is an ending, which mirrors Romeo and Juliet as Vera takes her own life to `save Russia'.
The hallmarks of the play are the wit of the Tsar Senior's Prime Minister Paul Maraloffski, and Vera's Lady Macbethesque speech where she steels herself to assassinate Alexis, before turning from Lady Macbeth into Juliet.
It lacks the finesse of Wilde's later plays like The Importance Of Being Earnest , Lady Windermere's Fan and Salome , but is interesting as part of a study into the development of Wilde's work.

Stefan Rudnicki has done a wonderful job transforming Julian Mitchell's screenplay into a very satisfactory novel about the life of Oscar Wilde. The Samuelson produced movie was superb, and here the novel is able to add a different level of depth by interspersing quotes and pieces of poetry by Wilde throughout the story line.

Granted, the story is not as complete as a full biography (Richard Ellman's is particularly thorough -- if somewhat dry) but it is told with such wit, humor and tragedy as to providing a most enchanting diversion. Highly Recommended, especially to those who are looking for good entertainment rather than mere scholarly facts and literary commentary.

This book is the best catagorization of the wit and humor of Oscar Wilde. It gives easy access to the width of his wit. MM

This book has remained one of my favorites since reading it in high school ~5 years ago. I have re-read it multiple times, seen it live & as a movie, and never seem to tire of Wilde's excellent knack for satire.

It is a quick & fun read full of irony and hilariously awkward situations. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys play-format comedies with strong irony.

I bought this script because I have so enjoyed the movie based on it. The English humor is brilliant and it is delightful to get to read it in probably less than an hour. This was pure enjoyment for me for no other reason than not missing a syllable of the dialogue (sometimes in the movie the actors speak a little too fast, so in order to savor the humor behind the lines having them in print allows you to enjoy them at your own pace)

I still smile when I think about this play. It was my first sampling of Oscar Wilde, and I found it pretty enjoyable. It's also been my only sampling of Oscar Wilde. I've been meaning to get into some more of his work, I really have. It's a tale of mistaken identity, of love, of three volume novels, of "Bunburyists" and of fashion. Everyone claims to be Earnest, but they're all rather trivial about it. It's pretty funny too, with a lot of wit and the like through it.

This particular edition is particularly cheap, and it seems like its worth a look.

I love this play. I love Oscar Wilde. The wit and humor of this play is astounding, and yet at the same time, it is so intelligent. I love it.

I have not listened to this audio CD version. I purchased it and returned it without listening to it. I opened the case and realized that this is an abridged radio play version on one CD. The play itself is delightful. I don't care for abridged versions of most material, certainly not a play that takes less than 90 minutes in its entirety. I urge Amazon to update the catalog entry to indicate that this is abridged. An unabridged version is available from other vendors. Thank-you.

OH! what a joy to have found these. i am a fan of the fabulous mr. wilde and i wasn't aware that he wrote fairy tales. they are deeply touching and made even more so when you realize that he wrote them for his children.

I recently bought this on a lark - it's an enjoyable read & Wilde's style is perfectly suited for creative fairy tales.

as usual with amazon, i received this book in very good condition. it arrived within a week after the order. i have never had any problems with the merchandise i have order from amazon over the years. keep up the good work!!!!

My introduction to WIlde was through his dramatic work. I thought it was dull and dated. SO I assumed he was over rated and ignored his work for years. A few moths ago one of my homies was raving about Pictures of Dorian grey so I gave it a go. I found the first half to be very impressive, the second half wasnt bad either. I was glad to know that Wilde had earned his rep. I wasnt even aware of his fairy tales. wowza! homie can write! this is the strongest work ive read by him. each tale is profound and beautiful. six star classic work.

Oscar Wilde has an eloquence that involves and transports the reader to magical lands that he in his mind has envisioned for us; lands where love, goodness, and kindness are the victors. I have often thought that we have left the best of us behind us, and Mr. Wilde is a prime example of this.

If you allow his powerful mastery of words for imagery and emotion to capture your heart and imagination, you will enjoy his literary works quite well.

Oscar Wilde was one of the foremost representatives of Aestheticism, a movement based on the notion that art exists for no other purpose than its existence itself ("l'art pour l'art"), not for the purpose of social and moral enlightenment. Born in Dublin and a graduate of Oxford's Magdalen College, he initially worked primarily as a journalist, editor and lecturer, but gradually turned to writing and produced his most acclaimed works in the six-year span from 1890 to 1895, roughly coinciding with the period of his romantic involvement with Lord Alfred "Bosie" Douglas, sixteen years his junior. Douglas's strained relationship with his father, John Sholto Douglas, Marquees of Queensberry, eventually resulted in a series of confrontations between Wilde and the Marquees, which first led to a libel suit brought by Wilde against his lover's father (who had openly accused Wilde of "posing as a sodomite" and threatened to disown his son if he didn't give up his acquaintance with the writer) and subsequently to two criminal trials against Wilde for "gross indecencies," based on a law generally interpreted to prohibit homosexual relationships. Sentenced to a two-year term of "hard labor" in Reading Gaol, Wilde emerged from prison in 1897 a spiritually, physically and financially broken man and, unable to continue living in England or Ireland, after three years' wanderings throughout Europe died in 1900 of cerebral meningitis, barely 46 years old.

"The Picture of Dorian Gray," Wilde's only novel besides seven plays as well as several works of short fiction, poetry, nonfiction and two fairy tale collections originally written for his two sons, is critical to an understanding of Wilde's body of work and his personality primarily for two reasons: First, because it constitutes one of his earliest fully accomplished formulations of Aestheticism, and secondly because of its undeniable undercurrent of homoeroticism; an inclination which, after a six-year marriage widely thought to initially have been a true love match, Wilde had begun to explore more openly around the time of the novel's creation (1890). The story's title character is an exceptionally handsome young man who, both in the eyes of the artist tasked to paint his portrait, Basil Hallward, and in those of their somewhat older friend Lord Henry Wotton, epitomizes perfect beauty and is coveted by both men for that very reason. Seduced by hedonistic Lord Henry into believing that beauty can literally justify anything, including any act of immorality, Dorian sells his soul for maintaining his beautiful appearance, letting his portrait age in his stead. (In that, his character resembles Goethe's and Marlowe's Faust.) He then quickly turns from an innocent youth into a cruel and calculating man whom society, in its shallow adherence to appearances, nonetheless never associates with any of the results of his cruelty, never looking beyond the surface of his handsome exterior and assuming that a man so beautiful must necessarily also be good. Ultimately it is Dorian himself who brings about his own downfall when he is no longer able to face the manifestation of his evilness in Basil Hallward's picture.

Upon its initial publication in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine in 1890, "The Picture of Dorian Gray" was widely scorned as immoral by a public neither familiar with nor particularly open to the concepts of Aestheticism and its mockery of middle class morality, and repulsed by the thinly veiled homoerotic relationship of the novel's protagonists. Wilde republished the work the following year, adding a preface designed to explain his views on art. Yet, it was that preface which, along with several of his other publications and his written exchanges with Lord Alfred Douglas, ultimately would play a devastating role in his trials, where Queensberry's attorney would come to use an excerpt from that very preface - "There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written" - to extract from Wilde statements to the effect that any book inspiring a sense of beauty (including, as implied in the attorney's question, an "immoral" book, if "The Picture of Dorian Gray" could be qualified as such) was well-written and therefore commendable; that only Philistines, brutes and illiterates - whose views on art he considered invariably stupid and for which he therefore didn't "care twopence" - could consider this novel "perverted," and that the majority of the reading public would probably not be able to draw a proper distinction between a good and a bad book. It was testimony such as this, as well as the impending confrontation with a number of male witnesses ready to testify as to the nature of their relationship with Wilde, that not only caused the author's attorney to convince his client to drop the libel suit against Queensberry but also opened the door for Wilde's own subsequent prosecution.

If "The Picture of Dorian Gray" has a central theme besides the supremacy of beauty and the depiction of a society primarily interested in appearances, it is a call for individuality: Dorian's cruelty is brought out only after he allows himself to be influenced by Lord Henry's equally seductive and cynical hedonism; and similarly, Basil Hallward's blind idolizing of Dorian eventually proves fatal for the painter. - Wilde's only novel is one of the first and most poignant expressions of his own individualism; but unlike his protagonist, who ultimately pays a ghastly prize for selling his soul and giving up his individuality, Wilde paid as high a price for maintaining his. Like Dorian, he knew that "[e]ach of us has Heaven and Hell in him," and although this novel's preface ends with the provocative statement that "[a]ll art is quite useless," it was the very fact that Wilde put his entire being into his art that ultimately destroyed him. But like beauty, which is finally restored to perfection in Dorian Gray's portrait, Wilde's works have stood the test of time; and not merely for their countless, pricelessly witty epigrams. They're as well worth a read as ever.

Also recommended:
Complete Works of Oscar Wilde (Collins Classics)
Oscar Wilde
Wilde (Special Edition)
The Oscar Wilde Collection
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Importance of Being Earnest - Criterion Collection
The Importance of Being Earnest
An Ideal Husband
A Good Woman

First off, for the audience looking to read this book after viewing the character from the movie LXG, know that the characteristics of Dorian are no as they were in the movie. Dorian does not die when he looks at his portrait; in fact his observation of the changes in his picture is one of the main elements of the story. Basil, an artist that is obsessed with the beauty of one man, Dorian, paints a portrait so beautiful that the subject is pained by the fact that the portrait's beauty will outlast that of his mortal body, and he wishes that this formula could be reversed, with the portrait aging in his place. He gets his wish, but at what price? Dorian, now free from the bounds of mortality, is no longer afraid to sin, since there he thinks that nothing can happen to him. But his behavior was not all due to his immortality; it was also due to the fact that the negative influence from Lord Henry corrupted his pure soul. The fact that he was able to keep his beauty but not able to keep his soul shows that judgment based on appearance is not only wrong, but inaccurate. This book is recommended, but not to the highest extent. The story picks up quickly, as it must with such a limited amount of pages. One of the only flaws in this book is chapter 11, the long, unwanted pause. A classic nonetheless, one that should no be overlooked.

This book is one of my favorites. I love The Picture of Dorian Gray, and also was amazed by "The Ballad of Reading Gaul"

This is the version I read while first discovering the many talents of Oscar Wilde. Dorian Gray is captivating, though the actual storyline is not intricate. The descriptions are extraordinary and left me wondering why he hadn't written more novels? Very short, very effective. It is inconcievable to think that Wilde was denounced for this book being immoral as it is really quite moral, considering the consequences of Dorian's behaviour. (He once commented that there never was an immoral or moral book, simply badly written or well-written) For insight into Oscar Wilde's very colourful life, pick up a copy of Richard Elmann's biography; it is not a happy read but very readable nonetheless.

The Picture of Dorian Gray is one of the greatest books of our time. It is over one hundred years old, but has aged gracefully and is still easily understood and as relevant to matters of life now as it was when it was first published. Though there have been many imitations of it and many film depictions of it, none of them do justice to the real thing. This timeless classic follows the development of a teenager, Dorian Gray, into manhood as the people that he calls his friends corrupt his soul. This is symbolized in a portrait that Gray hides, which was painted by the man who was perhaps his only good-hearted friend, Basil, who later met his untimely demise. Along with the exceptional plot and surprising twist at the end comes the message that Oscar Wilde cunningly imparts to the reader: One must be master of oneself because outside influences often disfigure one down to the deepest part of their soul. On top of all this, the book is also simply well written and entertaining. It is enjoyable because Wilde uses his mastery of everything from satire to suspense to convey his message and an extraordinarily compelling plot to the reader. You should read this book if you are looking for new knowledge, literature with a deep message, or simply a good time. This edition is especially helpful because it has a glossary for the meanings of some older words and supplementary reading written by Oscar Wilde.

there is nothing about this novel i didn't enjoy. oscar wilde is nothing short of a genius.

a timeless novel about the rights of the individual and our own mortality.

I had to read this book for english class i wasn't sure if it was going to be that good but i went and read it anyways. Ahead of the chapters that i was suppose to read in class but that didnt stop me. I really enjoyed this book Wilde is a very great writer. The only thing that bothered me was too many gay refrences but that made the book strong somehow. weird. As i got into the book i came to conclude that Dorian was nothing but a sponge sucking in everything he could know.

Dont read chapter 11 it would bore you to sleep. But the rest was good. What got me into this book was the fact that im an artist too and it made me think alot.
Pick it up it's worth a try.

"How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June...If it were only the other way! If it where I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that-for that-I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my own soul for that!"

Meet Dorian Gray. He has the perfect look. He shines with such youth and beauty that he amazes everyone he comes in contact with. According to Lord Henry Wotton, however, he does not fully realize what he has. When their mutual friend, Basil Hallward, a painter, decides to paint a portrait of Dorian, he ends up capturing that youth and beauty almost perfectly in his painting. Dorian is mezmerized by it. After listening to Lord Henry's philosophy about how youth and good looks are more important than being good-hearted, Dorian claims he would do anything to let the picture grow old and decay, while he will stay young and beautiful for the rest of his life.

It is only a downward spiral for Dorian after that. He continues to believe in the ways of Lord Henry. His face remains perfect and unlined as he commits sin after sin. The only way anyone would have known Dorian's true colors would be to take a look at his portrait; for his face on the portrait would take on the age lines and the sinister look that Dorian truly should bare in the flesh. The sight of his picture horrifies Dorian so deeply that he locks it up, and would not let anyone look at it. Dorian himself is too afraid to look at it. However, this does not stop Dorian from listening to Lord Henry and believing the same way he does.

Overall, The Picture of Dorian Gray is a great novel. The wit, humor, horror, and philosophy all comes together to make this story exactly what the description of the book says: timeless. The philosophical views of Lord Henry alone will make you question your own outlook on life. The plot is somewhat predictable, and so is the ending, but this doesn't keep Oscar Wilde's only full-length novel from being a great read. Also included in this book are his short stories, Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, The Happy Prince, and The Birthday of the Infanta. Go ahead and pick this book up and start reading.

A wonderful blend of morality and wit, set in the background of beautiful phrasing and truly enjoyable descriptions.

This book is very clever because it starts you off on par with Dorian - the main character - who then has his youthful innocence. Bit by bit, you find yourself fully strung on by the book's manipulative character who lures you in to the concept that everlasting beauty is more important than a beautiful soul.

Though predictable, the understanding the author demonstrates for the boy's psychological qualms, which have direct parallels to our lives at present, makes this a spiritually moving read.

The wit and mode he uses to drive his message home are second to none.

Humorous, witty, insightful, and evocative, it's a must read.

I admit that I knew very little of Oscar Wilde when I chose this particular book, at random. What an excellent choice for a novice as well as a Wilde devotee! Not only did I appreciate the tragic love story of Oscar, Constance and Bosie, but I also gained an insight into Victorian mores and political machinations. We apparently can't claim the corner on the market of corrupt zealots.
If you haven't read Mr. McKenna's work, you must. In the biography arena, this book is beyond the realm.

McKenna has carved his own niche among the Wilde biographies by concentrating on Oscar's homosexuality (too often marginalized or avoided by other writers), with emphasis on his long relationship with Bosie; McKenna considers theirs a great love affair, but it appears to have been something along the lines of codependency. It's quite remarkable how much detail is known about Oscar's antics through letters, journals and books, maybe too much, since this long read is at times a bit tedious as we move through one young man after another. McKenna has a couple of annoying habits as a writer -- all the young men couldn't have been quite as "breathtakingly" attractive as described, he makes a lot of suppositions about what someone must have thought, or might have done, and he's a bit melodramatic with the "but he would find out all too soon" chapter endings.

But these are quibbles. The book is important is several ways. Above all, it portrays Wilde as one of a group of early advocates of gay rights, a fervent believer that society and the law should treat homosexuals with equality and respect. It also provides a fascinating "decoding" of Wilde's most famous works by explaining the double, ie. homosexual, meaning of words, phrases and behavior on the part of his characters, who were often based on real people. The book paints a vivid picture of the seamy side of London's "Uranian" underground of rent boys, petty thieves and blackmailers and the "respectable" men who took their pleasure there. And it delves into his marriage, the ill-fated consequence of having to protect his reputation from the circling vultures.

Wilde is a fascinating, maddening subject, so sure of his own superiority that he considered himself above the law and the strictures of society, making him ultimately the instrument of his own self-destruction. This book will be of interest primarily to Wilde junkies and people interested in the sexual aspect of his life, but it should be read in conjunction with other bios, lest one get the impression that the great man did little but go at it like a rabbit.

See the other side of famous author Oscar Wilde with this biography. You'll gain new insight and perspective on his life.

"I find it harder and harder every day to live up to my blue china," Oscar Wilde confessed while he was a student at Oxford (p. 14).

For anyone who has visited his lipstick-kissed tomb at the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, Wilde's "secret life" is really no secret. Wilde (1854-1900) was primarily an Irish playwright, novelist, and poet, known for his brazen wit ("Little boys should be obscene and not heard," p. 257), which made him one of the greatest celebrities of late Victorian London. Following Wilde's death, his friend, Frank Harris, wrote a biography, Oscar Wilde: His Life and Confessions, which was followed by H. Montgomery Hyde's 1975 biography, Oscar Wilde: A Biography, and more recently Richard Ellmann's 1987 meticulous work, Oscar Wilde. Whereas these earlier, excellent biographies focused primarily on Wilde's literary achievements and dealt with his sexuality only in passing, Neil McKenna's The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde examines Wilde's sexuality and sexual behavior in detail--and at times, in graphic detail.

Most biographers concur that Wilde was introduced to homosexuality in 1885, but McKenna speculates--in charting Wilde's "journey" to find his true sexual self (p. xi)--Wilde was first aware of his homosexuality much earlier when he kissed another boy at age 16. After his arrival at Oxford in 1874, Wilde experienced passionate, romantic feelings for Greek beauty (i.e., cultivated, youthful, "fair," "slim" choirboys) (pp. 6-7), but was drawn sexually towards rougher boys. Following his visit to America in 1882, Wilde boasted, "I have the kiss of Walt Whitman still on my lips." In his struggle against his sexual feelings for young men, Wilde attempted to "cure" his sexuality in 1884 by marrying Constance Lloyd (the daughter of Queen's Counsel Horace Lloyd) and by fathering two sons, Cyril (1885) and Vyvyan (1886). But he continued to have regular sexual relationships with Robert Baldwin Ross, Lord Alfred Douglas ("Bosie"), and random teenage boys, whom he would meet in bars or brothels, culminating in his May, 1895 conviction and two-year imprisonment for "gross indecency." Later, after remarking, "my wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go" (p. 463), Wilde died in Paris, knowing that "he was a martyr in an epic struggle for the freedom of men to love men" (p. 465).

Drawn from interviews, letters, memoirs, journals, and Wilde's own writings--although McKenna's controversial but highly readable biography has been criticised for being too speculative, it nevertheless succeeds in bringing Wilde to life as a literary genius, a dandy, a pagan, an "extreme aesthete" who attempted to live his life by burning hard like a gemlike flame (p. 13), and as a gay Victorian outcast.

G. Merritt

I bought this book after reading a rave reviews in The Washington Post.
It is everything that it promised to be: brave, fresh, exciting, and
scrupulously researched. I have read most other biographies of Oscar
over the years and really thought that there was little left to say.
McKenna's biography has proved me wrong by proving not a wealth of new
and exciting material, but also a wealth of new insights and
interpretations. I cannot recommend this book too highly - it is a
beautiful and magical read. At the best part of 600 pages, it's a long
book, but for me it wasn't long enough. Incidentally, I don't
understand the comments of the latest reviewer about footnotes. In my
US hardback edition there are nearly 60 pages of notes which
scrupulously source every quote.