Oscar Wilde

Ruth Robbins is Associate Dean and Head of the School of Cultural Studies at Leeds Metropolitan University, UK. She has published widely on the late nineteenth century in general and on Oscar Wilde in particular.

'If literature, as Oscar Wilde once claimed, is not read at all, then either his work is not literature or Ruth Robbins has proved him wrong in this wonderfully original and provocative, deeply insightful critical account and appreciation of the text of Wilde. More than merely introductory-though Robbins' study is the single most indispensable inauguration to the Wildean oeuvre I've had the fortune to read-here is a radically challenging, beautifully written, and intimately perceptive reading of Wilde. Robbins' Oscar Wilde will, I have no doubt, set the agenda for thinking about Wilde again and, what is more to the point, astutely and intelligently. As Ruth Robbins demonstrates on every page with perceptive insight, wit and aplomb, the truth is rarely pure and never simple, but, in readings such as this, as rare as they are necessary, it is the truth-the truth of Wilde and the truth that only the literary and reading can effect-which appears everywhere. As Henry David Thoreau might have observed had he had the chance to read Oscar Wilde, read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all. Oscar Wilde is one of those books.'

• Note on Texts and Abbreviations \ Introduction \ 1. Poems \ 2. Prose - Critical \ 3. Prose - Short Fictional \ 4. Prose - Long Fictional \ 5. Plays \ 6. Prison Writings \ Bibliography \ Index