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Oscar Wilde bibliography

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Oscar Wilde bibliography

This is a bibliography of works by Oscar Wilde, a late-Victorian Irish writer. Chiefly remembered today as a playwright, especially for The Importance of being Earnest, and as the author of The Picture of Dorian Gray; Wilde's oeuvre includes criticism, poetry, children's fiction, and a large selection of reviews, lectures and journalism. His private correspondence has also been published.

Contents

Wilde was declared bankrupt to pay legal costs after his conviction for "gross indecency", and his possessions - including manuscripts, letters, books and presentation volumes of all the major literary figures of his day - were sold by auction. This has made bibliographical (and biographical) studies of unpublished work more difficult since they are widely dispersed, some in private ownership. The largest collection of Wilde's letters, manuscripts, and other material relating to his literary circle are housed at the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library. A number of Wilde's letters and manuscripts can also be found at The British Library, as well as public and private collections throughout Britain, the United States and France.

Essays

  • The Decay of Lying First published in Nineteenth Century (1889), republished in Intentions (1891).
  • Pen, Pencil and Poison First published in the Fortnightly Review (1889), republished in Intentions (1891).
  • The Soul of Man under Socialism First published in the Fortnightly Review (1891), republished in The Soul of Man (1895), privately printed.
  • Intentions (1891) Wilde revised his dialogues on aesthetic subjects for publication in this volume, which comprises:
  • The Critic as Artist
  • The Decay of Lying
  • Pen, Pencil and Poison
  • The Truth of Masks
  • "Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young" (First published in the Oxford student magazine The Chameleon, December, 1894) ("Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young" on Wikisource)
  • "A Few Maxims For The Instruction Of The Over-Educated" First published, anonymously, in the 1894 November 17 issue of Saturday Review.

    • Novel

  • The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) The first version of The Picture of Dorian Gray, published as the lead story in the July 1890 edition of Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, along with five other novels. Wilde revised it extensively, adding six new chapters at the behest of his publisher for publication in book form the following year.

    • Stories

  • The Portrait of Mr. W. H. (1889)
  • The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888, a collection of fairy tales) consisting of:
  • The Happy Prince
  • The Nightingale and the Rose
  • The Selfish Giant
  • The Devoted Friend
  • The Remarkable Rocket
  • A House of Pomegranates (1891, fairy tales)
  • Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories (1891) Including The Canterville Ghost first published in periodical form in 1887.
  • Complete Short Fiction. Penguin Classics, 2003. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Ian Small. Contains all works listed above plus Poems in Prose (1894) and one very short 'Elder-tree' (fragment).

    • Poems

  • Ravenna (1878) Winner of the Newdigate Prize.
  • Poems (1881) Wilde's collection of poetry and first publication.
  • The Sphinx (1894)
  • Poems in Prose (1894)
  • The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898)

    • Plays

  • Vera; or, The Nihilists (1880)
  • The Duchess of Padua (1883)
  • Lady Windermere's Fan (1892)
  • A Woman of No Importance (1893)
  • Salomé (French version) (1893, first performed in Paris 1896)
  • Salomé: A Tragedy in One Act: Translated from the French of Oscar Wilde by Lord Alfred Douglas, illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley (1894)
  • An Ideal Husband (1895) (text)
  • The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) (text)
  • La Sainte Courtisane and A Florentine Tragedy Fragmentary. First published 1908 in Methuen's Collected Works

    • (Dates are dates of first performance, which approximate better to the probable date of composition than dates of publication.)

  • The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays. Penguin Classics, 2000. Edited with an Introduction, Commentaries and Notes by Richard Allen Cave. Contains all from above save the first two. Salome is in English. As an appendix there is one excised scene from The Importance of Being Earnest.

    • Posthumous (Previously Unpublished)

  • De Profundis (Written 1895-97, in Reading Gaol). Expurgated edition published 1905; suppressed portions 1913, expanded version in The Letters of Oscar Wilde (1962).
  • The Rise of Historical Criticism (Written while at college) First published in 1905 (Sherwood Press, Hartford, CT) privately printed. Reprinted in Miscellanies, the last volume of the First Collected Edition (1908).
  • The First Collected Edition (Methuen & Co., 14 volumes) appeared in 1908 and contained many previously unpublished works.
  • The Second Collected Edition (Methuen & Co., 12 volumes) appeared in installments between 1909–11 and contained several other unpublished works.
  • The Letters of Oscar Wilde (Written 1868-1900) Published in 1962. Republished as The Complete Letters of Oscar Wilde (2000), with letters discovered since 1962, and new annotations by Merlin Holland.
  • The Women of Homer (Written 1876, while at college). First published in Oscar Wilde: The Women of Homer (2008) by The Oscar Wilde Society.
  • The Philosophy of Dress First published in The New-York Tribune (1885), published for the first time in book form in Oscar Wilde On Dress (2013).

    • Misattributed

  • Teleny, or The Reverse of the Medal (Paris, 1893) has been attributed to Wilde, but its authorship is unclear. One theory is that it was a combined effort by a several of Wilde's friends, which he may have edited.
  • Constance On September 14, 2011, Wilde's grandson Merlin Holland contested Wilde's claimed authorship of this play entitled Constance, scheduled to open that week in the King's Head Theatre. It was not, in fact, "Oscar Wilde's final play," as its producers were claiming. Holland said Wilde did sketch out the play's scenario in 1894, but "never wrote a word" of it, and that "it is dishonest to foist this on the public." The Artistic Director Adam Spreadbury-Maher of the King's Head Theatre and producer of Constance pointed out that Wilde's son, Vyvyan Holland, wrote in 1954, "a significant amount of the dialogue (of Constance) bears the authentic stamp of my father's hand". There is further proof that the developed scenario that Constance was reconstituted from was written by Wilde between 1897 and his death in 1900, rather than the 1894 George Alexander scenario which Merlin Holland quotes.

    • References

    Oscar Wilde bibliography Wikipedia
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