summary One autumn night, a flight of martinets1 in migration comes over a city in which is a statue of a deceased prince. This prince, nicknamed the "Happy Prince," was loved by all. Its statue is covered with thin golden leaves, has for its eyes two superb sapphires, and a large ruby is encrusted on the pommel of his sword. One of the swallows is standing at his side, admiring before so much grace and wealth. As she rests at her feet, she feels fine drops of water falling on her wings. The prince, who was happy during his lifetime in his sumptuous palace, now wept for his people. From his...

Salome is a tragedy of Oscar Wilde whose original version of 1891 is in French. A translation into English followed three years later. The play, in one act, rests on the biblical episode of Salome, 1 the daughter-in-law of the tetrarch of Galilee Herod Antipas, who, to the dismay of his father-in-law, but to the delight of his mother Herodias, Brings him the head of Iokanaan (John the Baptist) on a silver platter as a reward for performing the seven-veil dance. Versions and firsts Wilde wrote this play to Paris, where he had retired after completing Lady Windermere's Fan. He dedicated it to...

The Duchess of Padua is a play by the world famous wit Oscar Wilde. A five-act melodramatic tragedy set in Padua and written in blank verse. It was written for the actress Mary Anderson in early 1883 while in Paris. Alas she turned it down and it was abandoned until a run on Broadway re-titled Guido Ferranti. It ran for three weeks. It is rarely seen but on account of the immense talents of its author we thought it deserved a wider audience. We hope that includes you. Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854- 30 November 1900) was an Irish playwright, novelist, essayist, and...

LONDON: ST. JAMES'S THEATRE Lessee and Manager: Mr. George Alexander February 14th, 1895 * * * * * John Worthing, J.P.: Mr. George Alexander. Algernon Moncrieff: Mr. Allen Aynesworth. Rev. Canon Chasuble, D.D.: Mr. H. H. Vincent. Merriman: Mr. Frank Dyall. Lane: Mr. F. Kinsey Peile. Lady Bracknell: Miss Rose Leclercq. Hon. Gwendolen Fairfax: Miss Irene Vanbrugh. Cecily Cardew: Miss Evelyn Millard. Miss Prism: Mrs. George Canninge. FIRST ACT SCENE Morning-room in Algernon's flat in Half-Moon Street. The room is luxuriously and artistically furnished. The sound of a piano is heard in the...

FIRST ACT SCENE Morning-room of Lord Windermere's house in Carlton House Terrace. Doors C. and R. Bureau with books and papers R. Sofa with small tea-table L. Window opening on to terrace L. Table R. Lady Windermere is at table R., arranging roses in a blue bowl.] Enter Parker.] Parker. Is your ladyship at home this afternoon? Lady Windermere. Yes-who has called? Parker. Lord Darlington, my lady. Lady Windermere. Hesitates for a moment.] Show him up-and I'm at home to any one who calls. Parker. Yes, my lady. Exit C.] Lady Windermere. It's best for me to see him before to-night. I'm glad...

INTRODUCTION The concluding volume of any collected edition is unavoidably fragmentary and desultory. And if this particular volume is no exception to a general tendency, it presents points of view in the author's literary career which may have escaped his greatest admirers and detractors. The wide range of his knowledge and interests is more apparent than in some of his finished work. What I believed to be only the fragment of an essay on Historical Criticism was already in the press, when accidentally I came across the remaining portions, in Wilde's own handwriting; it is now complete...

The Portrait of Dorian Gray is a novel by Oscar Wilde, published in 1890 (revised in 1891) and written in the context of the Victorian era. The author includes themes of aesthetics such as art, beauty, youth, morals and hedonism. The novel is fantastic, but also philosophical, and highlights the equivocal personality of the Irish dandy as well as the current decadentist, prompting virulent exchanges of letters between Wilde and several very critical papers judging the work "repugnant." It is also Wilde's only novel in his entire career. Summary Dorian meets Lord Henry, says Harry, a friend of...

INTRODUCTION The editor of writings by any author not long deceased is censured sooner or later for his errors of omission or commission. I have decided to err on the side of commission and to include in the uniform edition of Wilde's works everything that could be identified as genuine. Wilde's literary reputation has survived so much that I think it proof against any exhumation of articles which he or his admirers would have preferred to forget. As a matter of fact, I believe this volume will prove of unusual interest; some of the reviews are curiously prophetic; some are, of course,...

PREFACE It is thought that a selection from Oscar Wilde's early verses may be of interest to a large public at present familiar only with the always popular Ballad of Reading Gaol, also included in this volume. The poems were first collected by their author when he was twenty-sex years old, and though never, until recently, well received by the critics, have survived the test of NINE editions. Readers will be able to make for themselves the obvious and striking contrasts between these first and last phases of Oscar Wilde's literary activity. The intervening period was devoted almost entirely...

PREFACE With the possible exceptions of the Greek Anthology, the "Golden Treasury" and those which bear the name of E. V. Lucas, no selections of poetry or prose have ever given complete satisfaction to anyone except the compiler. But critics derive great satisfaction from pointing out errors of omission and inclusion on the part of the anthologist, and all of us have putatively re-arranged and re-edited even the "Golden Treasury" in our leisure moments. In an age when "Art for Art's sake" is an exploded doctrine, anthologies, like everything else, must have a purpose. The purpose or object...