Books by Oscar Wilde

Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - - It was Lady Windermere's last reception before Easter, and Bentinck House was even more crowded than usual. Six Cabinet Ministers had come on from the Speaker's Levee in their stars and ribands, all the pretty women wore their smartest dresses, and at the end of the picture-gallery stood the Princess Sophia of Carlsruhe, a heavy Tartar-looking lady, with tiny black eyes and wonderful emeralds, talking bad French at the top of her voice, and laughing immoderately at everything that was said to her. It was certainly a wonderful medley of people. Gorgeous peeresses chatted affably to violent Radicals, popular preachers brushed coat-tails with eminent sceptics, a perfect bevy of bishops kept following a stout prima-donna from room to room, on the staircase stood several Royal Academicians, disguised as artists, and it was said that at one time the supper-room was absolutely crammed with geniuses. In fact, it was one of Lady Windermere's best nights, and the Princess stayed till nearly half-past eleven.

This collection brings together some of this much-loved writer's prose work. In it, Oscar Wilde touches on a wide range of topics as only he can. He discusses the decay of lying, the critic as artist, and the truth of masks. He provides criticism of productions of works of Shakespeare and other theatrical concerns, such as stage scenery, stage morals, and "plays that are meant to be read, not to be acted." He also devotes his attention to women's issues, such as novels and stories written by women and women's achievements. Taken together, readers will discover the incisive wit and unique observations for which Wilde was renowned.OSCAR WILDE (1854-1900) was a celebrated Irish-born playwright, short story writer, poet, and personality in Victorian London. He is best known for his involvement in the aesthetic movement and his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, as well as his many plays, such as Lady Windermere's Fan, The Importance of Being Ernest, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband, and Salomé. During his imprisonment for gross indecency, he wrote De Profundis, and later, The Ballad of Reading Gao.