Description

Oscar Wilde’s infamous wit, taste for scandal, and gift for revealing the hypocrisies of fashionable society are on display here in this collection of his finest plays. A genius both of and ahead of his time, he built his craft on the eternal questions of right and wrong—with pithy dialogue as fresh today as when it was written.

In addition to Wilde’s five major plays, this Signet Classics edition contains:

• Two interviews with the playwright at the peak of his career, in which Wilde discusses his work—and his critics

• Some of his most brilliant critical writing, in which he discusses the nature of art in terms that anticipate much of today’s literary theory

• An appendix that restores valuable lines that appeared in the original text of The Importance of Being Earnest

With an Introduction by Sylvan Barnet

and a New Afterword by Marylu Hill

About the Author

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish playwright, poet, and author of numerous short stories, and one novel. Known for his biting wit, and a plentitude of aphorisms, he became one of the most successful playwrights of the late Victorian era in London, and one of the greatest celebrities of his day. Several of his plays continue to be widely performed, especiallyThe Importance of Being Earnest.As the result of a widely covered series of trials, Wilde suffered a dramatic downfall and was imprisoned for two years hard labour after being convicted of "gross indecency" with other men. After Wilde was released from prison he set sail for Dieppe by the night ferry. He never returned to Ireland or Britain, and died in poverty.