Oscar Wilde
Spine number 01
Ravenna
A visit to Ravenna prompts reflections on the Italian city’s history and its associations with Dante and Byron. This meditative travel poem won Oxford’s Newdigate Prize and was published in 1878.
1878 · poem · Non-fiction
Spine number 02
Vera; or, The Nihilists
In an imagined Russia, Vera joins a revolutionary movement and finds political allegiance entangled with personal attachment. Wilde’s early tragedy was privately printed in 1880, revised for a second private printing in 1882 and first staged in New York in 1883.
1880 · play · Fiction
Spine number 03
Poems
Lyric reflections on love, art and places sit beside imagined classical scenes and dramatic narratives in Wilde’s first collection of verse. The volume brings together personal and public subjects with fictional storytelling, including the long poem Charmides. It was first published in 1881; some poems had already appeared in periodicals.
1881 · collection · Fiction & non-fiction
Spine number 04
The Duchess of Padua
Guido Ferranti arrives in Padua seeking answers about his father and becomes caught between revenge and love for the Duchess. Written in blank verse, this tragedy gives Wilde’s interest in divided loyalties a Renaissance setting. It was privately printed in 1883 and first performed in New York in 1891 as Guido Ferranti.
1883 · play · Fiction
Spine number 05
The Happy Prince and Other Tales
A gilded statue and a migrating swallow look down on a city whose beauty conceals suffering. Around their story, four other fairy tales follow a nightingale, a giant, a supposed friend and a self-important rocket. First collected in 1888, these tales mix the rhythms of storytelling with sharp observations about kindness, vanity and unequal lives.
1888 · collection · Fiction
Spine number 06
The Soul of Man Under Socialism
Wilde asks what people might create and become if poverty, compulsory labour and the demands of public opinion no longer governed their lives. His argument links social change to individual freedom and the independence of the artist. The essay first appeared in the Fortnightly Review in February 1891 and was privately issued as The Soul of Man in 1895.
1891 · essay · Non-fiction
Spine number 07
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Dorian Gray encounters his own beauty in Basil Hallward’s portrait and listens to Lord Henry Wotton’s seductive ideas about pleasure and youth. The novel follows the widening distance between an admired appearance and a private life. This record represents the expanded book edition of 1891, following the shorter version published in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine in 1890.
1891 · book · Fiction
Spine number 08
Intentions
Four essays examine how art, criticism and invention shape what people see and believe. In dialogues such as The Decay of Lying and The Critic as Artist, Wilde lets provocative claims develop through disagreement and reversal. Published together in 1891, the pieces revise essays that had appeared in periodicals.
1891 · collection · Non-fiction
Spine number 09
Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime and Other Stories
A fashionable young man takes a palm-reader’s prediction as an obligation to be fulfilled before his marriage. The other stories bring together a troubled English ghost, an elusive woman and an encounter between a poor young man and an artist’s model. First collected in 1891, the volume contains stories previously published in 1887, including The Canterville Ghost.
1891 · collection · Fiction
Spine number 10
A House of Pomegranates
A young king discovers the human cost of his finery, while other tales follow a court entertainer, a fisherman and a beautiful child. These four fairy tales place richly imagined worlds beside questions about love, cruelty and the value assigned to people. The collection was published in 1891.
1891 · collection · Fiction
Spine number 11
Salomé
At Herod’s court, Salomé becomes fascinated by the imprisoned prophet Jokanaan. Wilde’s one-act tragedy turns the biblical setting into a world of repeated images, uneasy watching and dangerous desire. Written in French, it was first published in 1893; the English translation followed in 1894.
1893 · play · Fiction
Spine number 12
Lady Windermere’s Fan
Lady Windermere suspects that her husband’s attention to Mrs Erlynne conceals an affair, and a birthday gathering puts her certainty about good and bad people under strain. Social comedy and melodrama meet in a play about reputation, loyalty and the limits of judgement. First performed in London in 1892, it was published in 1893.
1893 · play · Fiction
Spine number 13
The Sphinx
A speaker addresses a sphinx in his room, imagining the ancient gods, creatures and lovers that might belong to its past. The poem builds an elaborate vision of beauty and desire through a succession of questions and richly coloured images. It was first published in 1894.
1894 · poem · Fiction
Spine number 14
Poems in Prose
Six brief pieces use the shapes of parable and fable to unsettle familiar ideas about beauty, goodness and judgement. Artists, disciples and figures drawn from religious tradition meet in compressed scenes whose reversals invite rereading. The sequence appeared together in the Fortnightly Review in July 1894; some pieces had been printed separately before then.
1894 · collection · Fiction
Spine number 15
A Woman of No Importance
At an English country house, Gerald Arbuthnot’s promising new connection with Lord Illingworth alarms his mother. The guests’ polished conversation opens onto unequal expectations of men and women and the weight of a concealed past. The play was first performed in 1893 and published in 1894.
1894 · play · Fiction
Spine number 16
The Ballad of Reading Gaol
The execution of a fellow prisoner becomes the centre of Wilde’s reflections on confinement, punishment and shared suffering. Drawing on his experience at Reading Gaol, the poem moves between the individual condemned man and the lives of the prisoners around him. Published in 1898, it initially bore the prison designation C.3.3. instead of Wilde’s name.
1898 · poem · Non-fiction
Spine number 17
The Importance of Being Earnest
Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff invent convenient identities to escape their duties, only to find those inventions complicating their courtships. Names, manners and family connections become material for a comedy in which solemn declarations rarely mean what they seem to mean. First performed in London in 1895, the play was published in 1899.
1899 · play · Fiction
Spine number 18
An Ideal Husband
Sir Robert Chiltern’s political standing and his wife’s faith in him face a threat when Mrs Cheveley arrives with knowledge of his past. Around the attempted blackmail, Lord Goring’s apparent idleness conceals a different understanding of friendship and forgiveness. First performed in 1895, the comedy was published in 1899.
1899 · play · Fiction
Spine number 19
De Profundis
Writing from Reading Gaol to Lord Alfred Douglas, Wilde looks back on their relationship and considers suffering, art and the possibility of rebuilding a life. The letter moves between personal accusation and sustained spiritual reflection. Written in 1897, it first appeared in an abridged edition prepared by Robert Ross in 1905; fuller texts followed after Wilde’s death.
1905 · letter · Non-fiction · Posthumous
Spine number 20
A Florentine Tragedy
A merchant returns home to find a nobleman visiting his wife, and the language of hospitality becomes a contest over possession and desire. This unfinished verse tragedy survives without its opening scene. It was first published in Russian translation in 1907; the English fragment appeared in the collected works in 1908.
1907 · play · Fiction · Unfinished · Posthumous
Spine number 21
La Sainte Courtisane; or, The Woman Covered with Jewels
Myrrhina, a richly adorned woman, seeks out the hermit Honorius in the desert, where worldly pleasure and religious renunciation confront one another. The surviving fragment explores how persuasion can change both speaker and listener. Robert Ross edited it for its first book publication in Miscellanies in 1908.
1908 · play · Fiction · Unfinished · Posthumous
Begin with Wilde’s quick exchanges on stage, or take a quieter route through his fairy tales. His novel and prison writing offer two different ways to continue beyond the comedy.
Where to begin
Start here
The Importance of Being Earnest
The dialogue gives a direct introduction to Wilde’s habit of turning ordinary social rules upside down. Read it with an ear for timing: the characters’ complete confidence makes their absurd assumptions especially funny.
Not yet in our collection
For shorter reading sessions
The Happy Prince and Other Tales
Each fairy tale offers a distinct encounter with Wilde’s tenderness and his sharp sense of vanity. Their storytelling is accessible, but the questions they raise about generosity and suffering can stay with you beyond the last page.
Not yet in our collection
For a darker story
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Choose the novel if you want Wilde’s wit within a sustained Gothic narrative. The movement between glittering conversation and private unease makes it a useful route into his questions about beauty, influence and moral responsibility.
In the collection About 5 hr 16 min at 250 words/min
Read next
De Profundis
After the fiction, this prison letter brings a more exposed and argumentative voice into view. Allow space for its shifts between memories of a damaged relationship and reflections on suffering, imagination and spiritual renewal.
Not yet in our collection
Published 1878
Ravenna
poem
A visit to Ravenna prompts reflections on the Italian city’s history and its associations with Dante and Byron. This meditative travel poem won Oxford’s Newdigate Prize and was published in 1878.
Not yet in our collection
Published 1880
Vera; or, The Nihilists
play
In an imagined Russia, Vera joins a revolutionary movement and finds political allegiance entangled with personal attachment. Wilde’s early tragedy was privately printed in 1880, revised for a second private printing in 1882 and first staged in New York in 1883.
Not yet in our collection
Published 1881
Poems
collection
Lyric reflections on love, art and places sit beside imagined classical scenes and dramatic narratives in Wilde’s first collection of verse. The volume brings together personal and public subjects with fictional storytelling, including the long poem Charmides. It was first published in 1881; some poems had already appeared in periodicals.
Not yet in our collection
Published 1883
The Duchess of Padua
play
Guido Ferranti arrives in Padua seeking answers about his father and becomes caught between revenge and love for the Duchess. Written in blank verse, this tragedy gives Wilde’s interest in divided loyalties a Renaissance setting. It was privately printed in 1883 and first performed in New York in 1891 as Guido Ferranti.
Not yet in our collection
Published 1888
The Happy Prince and Other Tales
collection
A gilded statue and a migrating swallow look down on a city whose beauty conceals suffering. Around their story, four other fairy tales follow a nightingale, a giant, a supposed friend and a self-important rocket. First collected in 1888, these tales mix the rhythms of storytelling with sharp observations about kindness, vanity and unequal lives.
Not yet in our collection
Published 1891
A House of Pomegranates
collection
A young king discovers the human cost of his finery, while other tales follow a court entertainer, a fisherman and a beautiful child. These four fairy tales place richly imagined worlds beside questions about love, cruelty and the value assigned to people. The collection was published in 1891.
Not yet in our collection
Published 1891
Intentions
collection
Four essays examine how art, criticism and invention shape what people see and believe. In dialogues such as The Decay of Lying and The Critic as Artist, Wilde lets provocative claims develop through disagreement and reversal. Published together in 1891, the pieces revise essays that had appeared in periodicals.
Not yet in our collection
Published 1891
Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime and Other Stories
collection
A fashionable young man takes a palm-reader’s prediction as an obligation to be fulfilled before his marriage. The other stories bring together a troubled English ghost, an elusive woman and an encounter between a poor young man and an artist’s model. First collected in 1891, the volume contains stories previously published in 1887, including The Canterville Ghost.
Not yet in our collection
Published 1891
The Picture of Dorian Gray
book
Dorian Gray encounters his own beauty in Basil Hallward’s portrait and listens to Lord Henry Wotton’s seductive ideas about pleasure and youth. The novel follows the widening distance between an admired appearance and a private life. This record represents the expanded book edition of 1891, following the shorter version published in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine in 1890.
In the collection
Published 1891
The Soul of Man Under Socialism
essay
Wilde asks what people might create and become if poverty, compulsory labour and the demands of public opinion no longer governed their lives. His argument links social change to individual freedom and the independence of the artist. The essay first appeared in the Fortnightly Review in February 1891 and was privately issued as The Soul of Man in 1895.
Not yet in our collection
Published 1893
Lady Windermere’s Fan
play
Lady Windermere suspects that her husband’s attention to Mrs Erlynne conceals an affair, and a birthday gathering puts her certainty about good and bad people under strain. Social comedy and melodrama meet in a play about reputation, loyalty and the limits of judgement. First performed in London in 1892, it was published in 1893.
Not yet in our collection
Published 1893
Salomé
play
At Herod’s court, Salomé becomes fascinated by the imprisoned prophet Jokanaan. Wilde’s one-act tragedy turns the biblical setting into a world of repeated images, uneasy watching and dangerous desire. Written in French, it was first published in 1893; the English translation followed in 1894.
Not yet in our collection
Published 1894
A Woman of No Importance
play
At an English country house, Gerald Arbuthnot’s promising new connection with Lord Illingworth alarms his mother. The guests’ polished conversation opens onto unequal expectations of men and women and the weight of a concealed past. The play was first performed in 1893 and published in 1894.
Not yet in our collection
Published 1894
Poems in Prose
collection
Six brief pieces use the shapes of parable and fable to unsettle familiar ideas about beauty, goodness and judgement. Artists, disciples and figures drawn from religious tradition meet in compressed scenes whose reversals invite rereading. The sequence appeared together in the Fortnightly Review in July 1894; some pieces had been printed separately before then.
Not yet in our collection
Published 1894
The Sphinx
poem
A speaker addresses a sphinx in his room, imagining the ancient gods, creatures and lovers that might belong to its past. The poem builds an elaborate vision of beauty and desire through a succession of questions and richly coloured images. It was first published in 1894.
Not yet in our collection
Published 1898
The Ballad of Reading Gaol
poem
The execution of a fellow prisoner becomes the centre of Wilde’s reflections on confinement, punishment and shared suffering. Drawing on his experience at Reading Gaol, the poem moves between the individual condemned man and the lives of the prisoners around him. Published in 1898, it initially bore the prison designation C.3.3. instead of Wilde’s name.
Not yet in our collection
Published 1899
An Ideal Husband
play
Sir Robert Chiltern’s political standing and his wife’s faith in him face a threat when Mrs Cheveley arrives with knowledge of his past. Around the attempted blackmail, Lord Goring’s apparent idleness conceals a different understanding of friendship and forgiveness. First performed in 1895, the comedy was published in 1899.
Not yet in our collection
Published 1899
The Importance of Being Earnest
play
Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff invent convenient identities to escape their duties, only to find those inventions complicating their courtships. Names, manners and family connections become material for a comedy in which solemn declarations rarely mean what they seem to mean. First performed in London in 1895, the play was published in 1899.
Not yet in our collection
Published 1905
De Profundis
letter · Posthumous
Writing from Reading Gaol to Lord Alfred Douglas, Wilde looks back on their relationship and considers suffering, art and the possibility of rebuilding a life. The letter moves between personal accusation and sustained spiritual reflection. Written in 1897, it first appeared in an abridged edition prepared by Robert Ross in 1905; fuller texts followed after Wilde’s death.
Not yet in our collection
Published 1907
A Florentine Tragedy
play · Unfinished · Posthumous
A merchant returns home to find a nobleman visiting his wife, and the language of hospitality becomes a contest over possession and desire. This unfinished verse tragedy survives without its opening scene. It was first published in Russian translation in 1907; the English fragment appeared in the collected works in 1908.
Not yet in our collection
Published 1908
La Sainte Courtisane; or, The Woman Covered with Jewels
play · Unfinished · Posthumous
Myrrhina, a richly adorned woman, seeks out the hermit Honorius in the desert, where worldly pleasure and religious renunciation confront one another. The surviving fragment explores how persuasion can change both speaker and listener. Robert Ross edited it for its first book publication in Miscellanies in 1908.
Not yet in our collection
Oscar Wilde was an Irish playwright, novelist, poet and essayist whose writing turns elegance and wit into questions about desire, reputation and the claims of art. His comedies let characters say the unexpected with perfect assurance, exposing the rules beneath polite society. The fairy tales of The Happy Prince and Other Tales combine tenderness with satire, while his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, gives the pursuit of beauty a darker, Gothic form.
Born in Dublin in 1854, Wilde studied at Trinity College Dublin and Magdalen College, Oxford, before building a literary career in London. He became a public advocate of aestheticism, which valued art beyond its usefulness or moral instruction. Essays collected in Intentions explore those ideas through argument and dialogue; plays including Lady Windermere’s Fan and The Importance of Being Earnest bring his fascination with appearances and self-invention into the drawing room.
In 1895 Wilde was convicted of gross indecency for sexual acts with men and sentenced to two years’ hard labour. His imprisonment informs De Profundis, the long letter he wrote to Lord Alfred Douglas in Reading Gaol, and The Ballad of Reading Gaol, published after his release. He spent his remaining years abroad and died in Paris in 1900.