Plays, Prose Writings and Poems (Everymans Classics)

Wilde, Oscar

ISBN 10: 0460118587 / ISBN 13: 9780460118583

Published by Everyman Ltd, 1983

About this Item

Dispatched, from the UK, within 48 hours of ordering. This book is in good condition but will show signs of previous ownership. Please expect some creasing to the spine and/or minor damage to the cover. Aged book. Tanned pages and age spots, however, this will not interfere with reading.

Seller Inventory # CHL10430115

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Plays, Prose Writings and Poems (Everymans Classics)
• Publisher: Everyman Ltd
• Publication Date: 1983
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0460118587
• ISBN 13: 9780460118583
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: Used; Good

About this title

Synopsis

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Pomona Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

About the Author

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was born in Dublin, the second son of charismatic parents, his father a surgeon, his mother a poet. Ungainly and awkward as a child, he won an open scholarship to Trinity College, Dublin, and went from there to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he took a First in Greats, won the Newdigate Prize for Poetry and announced that 'Somehow or other I'll be famous, and if not famous, notorious'. In London he set about establishing himself as a poet and wit, and when Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera Patience toured the USA in 1882 he was invited to give a speech before every performance so that American audiences could recognize the 'perfectly precious young aesthete' satirized in the character of Bunthorne. This brought him both celebrity and money, and in 1884 he married Constance Lloyd, by whom he had two sons.

He began writing fairy tales while working as editor of The Lady's World, and The Happy Prince was published in 1888. His first play, Vera, had been a failure, but in 1892 Lady Windermere's Fan was staged with great success. This was swiftly followed by three other enomously successful comedies, the most famous being The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). Wilde died in France, aged only 46. His plays remain as popular today as ever before.

Although he read his fairy stories to his two young sons, he claimed they were ' . . . not for children, but for childlike people from eighteen to eighty'.