Books by Oscar Wilde
“Wilde wrote this as a letter to Lord Alfred Douglas while he was imprisoned in Reading Gaol.” Read more...
Sos Eltis, Literary Scholar
“I love all of the stories, but I’d select two for particular attention: ‘The Fisherman and his Soul’ and ‘The Portrait of Mr W H’” Read more...
Sos Eltis, Literary Scholar
“If you wish to participate in the novel, you have to appreciate it in the way that Dorian appreciates cabinets, carpets, tapestries and jewels. Is beauty deceptive or can beauty be a moral guide? Does the novel suggest that if you judge by appearances you’ll be led astray, like the people who think that Dorian can’t be guilty of the crimes that he has committed because he is beautiful? Or does the ending of the novel, in which Dorian magically becomes ugly as he is ‘punished’ for his sins, affirm the link between morality and beauty? You can offer equally convincing readings either way round, but only by discarding half the evidence in the novel. So, it’s a novel that engages with beauty, aesthetics and the idea of what an aesthetic life would be, but it offers no answers.” Read more...
Sos Eltis, Literary Scholar
“Intellectually, the brand of socialism that he propounded in The Soul of Man under Socialism is a fantastically ideal one” Read more...
Sos Eltis, Literary Scholar
The Happy Prince
by Oscar Wilde
This was the first sad book I loved. It’s really, really heartbreaking, and an extraordinary love story. It really is exquisitely written
“In some ways it conforms to a conventional farce structure. Most farces start with somebody lying, committing a crime, or making a mistake. Then they lie to cover it up. From that lie, more and more complications emerge. At the end of most farces, the original lie or sin is revealed and forgiven. Authority is re-imposed. People go back into their proper place. However, in The Importance of Being Earnest, the lies turn out to be truths. Everybody is allowed to keep lying. In fact, it’s impossible to separate lies and truth in any meaningful way. The characters get to be who they were pretending to be. While Lady Bracknell is an embodiment of society’s authority and etiquette, she wields no power by the end.” Read more...
Sos Eltis, Literary Scholar
Interviews where books by Oscar Wilde were recommended
The best books on Oscar Wilde, recommended by Sos Eltis
Oscar Wilde cultivated an image of himself as an idle genius, dashing off masterpieces with a lazy brilliance. But below the glittering linguistic surface of his works, suggests Sos Eltis, lies an anarchic politics and a phenomenal analysis of power.
Michael Morpurgo recommends his Favourite Children’s Books
The best-selling children’s author, Michael Morpurgo, says books for children need to do more than amuse their readers. He picks his own favourite books written for young people.
The best books on Sex and Society, recommended by Eric Berkowitz
For thousands of years, human societies have tried to regulate sexual activity. The author of Sex and Punishment tells us why this should be so, and how what’s permissible has varied according to time and place.
