Oscar Wilde's Plays, Prose Writings, and Poems

This volume assembles the primary literary output of the Victorian era’s most notable wit, including the full text of "The Importance of Being Earnest" alongside "Lady Windermere’s Fan." The collection balances Wilde’s comedic stagecraft with his darker philosophical fiction, specifically "The Picture of Dorian Gray," which examines the physical manifestation of moral decay. It further includes "De Profundis," his personal letter written from Reading Gaol, and "The Ballad of Reading Gaol," documenting his imprisonment and the psychological toll of the penal system.

Students of late nineteenth-century aesthetics and practitioners of social satire read this collection to analyze the mechanics of the epigram and the paradox. The reader investigates the tension between public morality and private vanity through Wilde’s structured dialogue and lyrical verse. They finish the book with a technical understanding of the "art for art’s sake" movement and a clear map of how Wilde utilized artifice to critique the rigid social hierarchies of London society.