This authoritative edition was formerly published in the acclaimed Oxford Authors series under the general editorship of Frank Kermode. It brings together a unique combination of Wilde`s poetry and prose short stories, plays, critical dialogues and his only novel - to give the essence of his work and thinking. Oscar Wilde`s dramatic private life has sometimes threatened to overshadow his great literary achievements. His talent was prodigious: the author of brilliant social comedies, fairy stories, critical dialogues, poems, and a novel, "The Picture of Dorian Gray". In addition to "Dorian Gray", this volume represents all these genres, including such works as "Lady Windermere`s Fan" and "The Importance of Being Earnest", "The Happy Prince", "The Critic as Artist", and "The Ballad of Reading Gaol".