«In his lifetime,» writes Mr. Hesketh Pearson in his Introduction to this volume, «Oscar Wilde charmed his friends out of criticism and irritated his enemies out of reason.» It is only now, when Wilde’s personality and private misfortunes have ceased to be matters of prejudiced controversy, that we can view his work in a «And, spirit of detachment. having done so, we may risk the prophecy that his gay humour will outlive his sad history.»

This volume is intended to represent all sides of Oscar Wilde’s diverse literary activity. It includes his two best and wittiest plays, Lady Windermere’s Fan and that ‘apotheosis of tomfoolery,’ The Importance of Being Earnest. It includes, also, the one long poem by which he is most likely to be remembered, The Ballad of Reading Gaol; his long essay on The Soul of Man under Socialism; his confessional testament, The Critic as Artist; and, not least, The Picture of Dorian Gray, which has been described as «the first French novel to be written in English.» Appended to the volume is a letter written in 1897 to Robert Ross, which intimately reveals the personality of the man and deserves a place in this collection of
the best of his writings.