III.

Works

Wilde's early works included two collections of fairy stories, which he wrote for his sons, The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888) and A House of Pomegranates (1891), and a group of short stories, Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories (1891). His only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890, 1891), is a melodramatic tale of moral decadence, distinguished for its brilliant, epigrammatic style. Although the author fully describes the process of corruption, the shocking conclusion of the story commits him to a moral stand against self-debasement. The critics still charged Wilde with immorality.

Wilde's most distinctive and engaging plays are the four comedies Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), A Woman of No Importance (1893), An Ideal Husband (1895), and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), all characterized by adroitly contrived plots and remarkably witty dialogue. Wilde, with little dramatic training, proved he had a natural talent for stagecraft and theatrical effects and a true gift for farce. The plays sparkle with his clever paradoxes, among them such famous inverted proverbs as “Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes” and “What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing”.

In contrast, Wilde's Salomé is a serious drama about obsessive passion. Originally written and published (1893) in French, it was first produced in Paris in 1896. It was subsequently made into an opera (1905) by the German composer Richard Strauss. Salomé was also translated by Lord Alfred Douglas and published in English in 1894 with illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley.

While in prison Wilde composed De Profundis (From the Depths; 1905), an apology for his life. Some critics consider it a serious revelation; others, a sentimental and insincere work. The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), written at Berneval, France, just after his release and published anonymously in England, is the most powerful of all his poems. The starkness of prison life and the desperation of people interned are revealed in beautifully cadenced language. For years after his death the name of Oscar Wilde bore the stigma attached to it by Victorian prudery. Wilde, the artist, now is recognized as a brilliant social commentator, whose best work remains worthwhile and relevant.