The Best of Oscar Wilde: Selected Plays and Writings »

The ever-quotable Oscar Wilde once said, "Anybody can make history. Only a great man can write it." From his outsize celebrity in Victorian London to his authorship of fiction, drama, and poetry that uniquely captured his era, it's fair to say that Wilde succeeded on both counts.

Sylvan Barnet (Tufts U.) provides an informative introduction to this new collection of Wilde's still provocative major plays: The Importance of Being Earnest, An Ideal Husband, A Woman of New Importance, Lady Windermere's Fan, and Salome. Also included are a Wilde chronology (1854-1900), some of his literary criticism, and lines restoring the original text of The Importance of Being Ernest. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR