The Plays of Oscar Wilde

This is ideal to have Oscar Wilde's works always available for reading on my Kindle, especially when stuck in the waiting room for 45 minutes at a doctor's office.

Much of Oscar Wilde's public persona can be seen through the plays and reading them it is easy to see why he was so admired, talked about, loathed and scorned. While I don't find him in his plays to be the epitome of wit some make him out to be, it is easy to see how innovative his plays must have been. Despite being funny in a witty kind of way in many places, they also outline if not his beliefs, then at least his beliefs as he presented them to the public. And what I found was a playful, self mocking kind of "opulence" - where Wilde's supposed aesthesism is not dogmatic but rather to be enjoyed. Thus, we see him participate in society through his characters while mocking society. Another important aspect is that despite his most witty characters (characters one would naturally identify with Wilde) scorning conventional morality, the actual outcome of his plays contains a morality of its own - and one that's quite close to some modern-day libertarians: a happy ending means that people make the best of their circumstances to enjoy themselves and live a happy and fulfilling life in the freedom of pursuing what they want to. Even if this is nothing like what Wilde wanted to convey, it still adds to the plays' reading. I found the actual plays to be quite undifferentiated in that there is nothing that is in one that is completely radical compared to the others - rather, it's good to read them all in order to immerse oneself in that kind of atmosphere for a brief moment. The only exception is Salome, which is very unusual, but I think it's clear that it was intended to be so, and there's something avant-garde about it (especially the refrains about things like the moon scattered throughout). But enough from me, read it and find out part of the reason why Wilde has left such a unique mark on world literature/culture/etc!

I recommend this collection of Wilde's plays, not only because it has nice, big, clear print (better than some of the other available versions) but because of its wonderfully pithy intro by John Lahr. In fact I just put a John Lahr book in my shopping cart because I liked this intro so much. I finished reading Richard Ellman's 500+ page bio of Wilde the other day, so you wouldn't think I'd find anything new in this short intro, but Lahr put things together, with fresh ideas and insights, so I really ended up admiring Lahr's writing ability.As to the plays, well of course you need a collection of Wilde's plays in your library! I feel a great need to post here to offset the student who posted and gave less than 5 stars. I hope you finished your homework!