Wilde's plays will always be my favorite. I found his poetry very enjoyable, especially, "The Ballad of Reading Gaol." But I found his essays impenetrable, full of references that I didn't understand, and hard to slog through.

mi vida por la gorda

la gorda: complete works of Oscar Wilde

I received this book as a gift from my dad when I was about 13 years old.
It's the special centenary edition.
It was love at first sight.
It's filled with my notes, my dried flowers (teen me was oh so romantic) and a piece of my soul.

14% Finished
Last Read: The Grave of Shelley
Currently Reading:

n  STORIESn

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY

LORD ARTHUR SAVILE’S CRIME
THE CANTERVILLE GHOST
THE SPHINX WITHOUT A SECRET
THE MODEL MILLIONAIRE

A HOUSE OF POMEGRANATES
THE YOUNG KING
THE BIRTHDAY OF THE INFANTA
THE FISHERMAN AND HIS SOUL
THE STAR-CHILD

THE HAPPY PRINCE
THE NIGHTINGALE AND THE ROSE
THE SELFISH GIANT
THE DEVOTED FRIEND
THE REMARKABLE ROCKET

THE PORTRAIT OF MR. W. H.

n  THE PLAYSn

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST
LADY WINDERMERE’S FAN
A WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE
AN IDEAL HUSBAND
SALOMÉ
THE DUCHESS OF PADUA
VERA, or THE NIHILISTS
A FLORENTINE TRAGEDY
LA SAINTE COURTISANE or THE WOMAN COVERED WITH JEWELS

n  THE POEMSn

YE SHALL BE GODS
CHORUS OF CLOUD MAIDENS
FROM SPRING DAYS TO WINTER
REQUIESCAT
SAN MINIATO
BY THE ARNO
ROME UNVISITED
LA BELLA DONNA DELLA MIA MENTE
CHANSON
UNTITLED (SEE THE GOLD SUN HAS RISEN)
UNTITLED (SHE STOLE BEHIND HIM WHERE HE LAY)
THE DOLE OF THE KING’S DAUGHTER
LOVE SONG
TRISTITIAE
THE TRUE KNOWLEDGE
HEART’S YEARNINGS
THE LITTLE SHIP
ΘPHNΩIΔIA (SONG OF LAMENTATION)
LOTUS LAND
DÉSESPOIR
LOTUS LEAVES
UNTITLED (O LOVED ONE LYING FAR AWAY)
A FRAGMENT FROM THE AGAMEMNON OF AESCHYLOS
A VISION
SONNET ON APPROACHING ITALY
SONNET (WRITTEN IN HOLY WEEK AT GENOA)
IMPRESSION DE VOYAGE
THE THEATRE AT ARGOS
URBS SACRA AETERNA
THE GRAVE OF KEATS
SONNET: ON THE MASSACRE OF THE CHRISTIANS IN BULGARIA
EASTER DAY
SONNET: ON HEARING THE DIES IRAE SUNG IN THE SISTINE CHAPEL
ITALIA
VITA NUOVA
E TENEBRIS
QUANTUM MUTATA
TO MILTON
AVE MARIA GRATIA PLENA
WASTED DAYS
THE GRAVE OF SHELLEY
SANTA DECCA
THEORETIKOS
AMOR INTELLECTUALIS
AT VERONA
RAVENNA
MAGDALEN WALKS
THE BURDEN OF ITYS
THEOCRITUS
NOCTURNE
ENDYMION
CHARMIDES
BALLADE DE MARGUERITE
LA BELLE GABRIELLE
HUMANITAD
ATHANASIA
THE NEW HELEN
PANTHEA
PHÈDRE
QUEEN HENRIETTA MARIA
LOUIS NAPOLEON
MADONNA MIA
ROSES AND RUE
PORTIA
APOLOGIA
QUIA MULTUM AMAVI
SILENTIUM AMORIS
HER VOICE
MY VOICE
ΓΛYKYΠIKPOΣ EPΩΣ (SWEET, I BLAME YOU NOT...)
THE GARDEN OF EROS
AVE IMPERATRIX
PAN
THE ARTIST’S DREAM OR SEN ARTYSTY
LIBERTATIS SACRA FAMES
SONNET TO LIBERTY
TAEDIUM VITAE
FABIEN DEI FRANCHI
SERENADE
CAMMA
IMPRESSION DU MATIN
IN THE GOLD ROOM
IMPRESSIONS: 1. LES SILHOUETTES; 2. LA FUITE DE LA LUNE
IMPRESSION: LE RÉVEILLION
HÉLAS!
TO V.F.
TO M. B. J.
IMPRESSIONS: 1. LE JARDIN; 2. LA MER
LE JARDIN DES TUILERIES
THE HARLOT’S HOUSE
FANTAISIES DÉCORATIVES
UNDER THE BALCONY
TO MY WIFE
ON THE SALE BY AUCTION OF KEATS’ LOVE LETTERS
THE NEW REMORSE
CANZONET
WITH A COPY OF ‘A HOUSE OF POMEGRANATES’
SYMPHONY IN YELLOW
LA DAME JAUNE
REMORSE
IN THE FOREST
THE SPHINX
THE BALLAD OF READING GAOL

n  POEMS IN PROSEn

THE ARTIST
THE DOER OF GOOD
THE DISCIPLE
THE MASTER
THE HOUSE OF JUDGMENT
THE TEACHER OF WISDOM

n  ESSAYS, SELECTED JOURNALISM, LECTURES AND LETTERSn

THE HOUSE BEAUTIFUL
THE DECORATIVE ARTS
PERSONAL IMPRESSIONS OF AMERICA
MRS LANGTRY AS HESTER GRAZEBROOK
WOMAN’S DRESS
MR WHISTLER’S TEN O’CLOCK
DINNERS AND DISHES
HAMLET AT THE LYCEUM
OLIVIA AT THE LYCEUM
A HANDBOOK TO MARRIAGE
BALZAC IN ENGLISH
A RIDE THROUGH MOROCCO
THE AMERICAN INVASION
TWO BIOGRAPHIES OF KEATS
ARISTOTLE AT AFTERNOON TEA
MR MORRIS ON TAPESTRY
LONDON MODELS
DE PROFUNDIS
TWO LETTERS TO THE DAILY CHRONICLE
THE DECAY OF LYING
PEN, PENCIL AND POISON
THE CRITIC AS ARTIST
THE TRUTH OF MASKS
THE SOUL OF MAN UNDER SOCIALISM
THE RISE OF HISTORICAL CRITICISM
A FEW MAXIMS FOR THE INSTRUCTION OF THE OVER-EDUCATED
PHRASES AND PHILOSOPHIES FOR THE USE OF THE YOUNG

What can I say? I want to roll Oscar's words on my tongue. I will read and re-read these works until I die.

What can I say? You either love Wilde or you don't understand him, and I love him.

Wilde has such a gift with writing. He is fabulous, Honest and clever.
this book is a collection of Wilde’s writings containing his only novel, The Portrait of Dorian Gray, as well as his plays, stories, poems, essays and letters.

So many favorite quotes :

“Why, anybody can have common sense, provided that they have no imagination”

“It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.”

"What is a cynic?…A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing."

“The ages live in history through their anachronisms.”

“I am not sorry for anything that has happened. It has taught me to know myself better.”

“Surely Love is a wonderful thing. It is more precious than emeralds, and dearer than fine opals. Pearls and pomegranates cannot buy it, nor is it set forth in the market-place. It may not be purchased of the merchants, nor can it be weighed out in the balance for gold.”

“no theory of life seemed to him to be of any importance compared with life itself.”

gay

This is a complete works volume, so I may never complete it. I bought this so I could sample the "children's stories" (which are not just for children, much like the stories of C. S. Lewis and George MacDonald) and read his critical essays. The children's stories give you a good sampling of late Victorian tastes and are well-told tales much in the vein of Arabian Nights and The Brothers Grimm. The essays are quite thought-provoking. One sample: What England needs are clergy who believe in the supernatural. No one can believe the improbable. [My paraphrase.] Here is a man who knew and respected: The Bible, Shakespeare, classical Greek and Roman works (he was a Classicist, after all), the English literature that came before him, and much of French literature, specifically, and European literature in general. In other words, he was an educated Victorian English gentleman. Scintillating reading.

1) The Picture of Dorian Gray
2) Lord Arthur Savile's Crime
3) The Canterville Chost
4) The Sphinx Without a Secret
5) The Model Millionaire
6) The Young King
7) The Birthday of the Infanta
8) The Fisherman and His Soul
9) The Star-Child
10) The Happy Prince
11) The Nightingale and the Rose
12) The Selfish Giant
13) The Devoted Friend
15) The Remarkable Rocket
16) The Importance of Being Earnest
17) Lady Windermere's Fan
18) A Woman of No Importance
19) An Ideal Husband
20) Salome
21) The Duchess of Padua
22) Vera, or the Nihilists
23) A Florentine Tragedy
24) La Sainte Courtisane
25) Poems
26) Poems in Prose
27) De Profundis
28) Two Letters to the Daily Chronicle
29) The Decay of Lying
30) Pen, Pencil and Poison
31) The Critic as Artist
32) The Truth of Masks
33) The Soul of Man Under Socialism
34) The Rise of Historical Criticism
35) The Portrait of Mr. W.H.
36) A Few Maxims for the Instruction of the Over-Educated
37) Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young

Let me start by saying that I absolutely adore Oscar Wilde and I adored him ever since I read his famous The Picture of Dorian Gray at age 17. I was most thrilled to stumble upon this beautiful collection of his work, and when the girl I got it from wanted to trade it for a pack of cookies I was beyond excited. This must be faith. Or she must have been very hungry.

The introduction of this collection almost made me tear up. Oscar Wilde was loved beyond words, and even now that light shines through. I also feel I should be referring to Oscar Wilde as Oscar. He feels like a friend I never met in real life.

Re-reading The Picture of Dorian Gray made me appreciate the story even more. For Gray is a troubled soul, and the only way he feels he has any control over his life is to measure good and bad through beauty. Because what else is there, when the only joy you have is a pretty face? When terrible things happen to him, it seems that something inside him changes. When even beautiful things cease to stay in his life, the badness of sin is merely subjective. The tragic, the beauty... This book is my favorite ever for a reason.

Oscar is a marvellous writer. His short stories are almost like a work of poetry, entangled in a beautiful web of humor and wisdom. My ultimate favorite stories by him are Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, The Canterville Ghost, The Nightingale and the Rose (I genuinely cried the first time I read it), The Happy Prince, The Selfish Giant, The Young King and The Fisherman and his Soul. Oscar's short stories are teeny tiny fairy tales and I love them for it. Some of these stories I read before, but I can genuinely say they do not get boring. I am so going to read them to my future children.

I never really read plays before I read Oscar's in this complete collection. I thought plays were boring and I never really understood why people enjoyed reading (or writing) them. Until I started with The Importance of Being Ernest. This was so funny! What I really liked about reading this play was that I couldn't follow their thoughts, as it obviously wasn't written like that, but that I could understand and envision an entire story by reading mostly dialogue! Well done, Oscar.
I must say that, as I read on and finished all of his plays in a couple of days, I felt it became a little repetitive. Nothing too major, and the plots being nice and all (and still funny!), but I did sense a theme and style once I finished them all. An exception to this were Salomé and La Sainte Courtisane. These were surprisingly good ones, refreshing and dramatic.

As for Oscar's poems, I must say I'm not the biggest fan. And it saddens me. I mean, the poems aren't bad at all, but they just didn't make me laugh, cry, sit in anger... I really did like a few of them, and definitely don't regret reading the rest of 'em, but I feel Oscar's poetic side just shows way better in his stories (I mean, The Nightingale and the Rose is, for example, such a poetic and deep story in itself) and his plays (Salomé!) that the poems he did write didn't feel as special as they might have... The poems I did like best were Requiescat, La Bella Donna Della Mia Mente, The Little Ship, Bittersweet Love, Le Jardin
Des Tuileries, Fantaisies Décoratives, Under the Balcony, Remorse and The Disciple (poem in prose). I felt like Oscar's poems in prose were very sad and they might have been written while Oscar was contemplating his faith. I sometimes had the idea that he approached his faith positively, and sometimes negatively, a little depressed even, maybe. It made me sad, which I guess is also a good thing for it means his work sparks emotion, and that's obviously what it's meant to do...

Then, last but not least, the tastiest leftovers a child leaves on its plate for last, as Merlin Holland lovingly stated in the introduction to Oscars essays, selected journalism, lectures and letters. And when I began with reading The House Beautiful I immediately felt that was true. What a funny, amazing and smart piece that was! I scribbled more notes and comments and highlighted pieces in that first piece than I did in the upcoming ones. As good as the first one was, as little did the following ones did for me. I understand that a review of a 19th century book on marriage, or a play is historically important and it sure does show Oscars well-developed, kind and clever nature. But it just didn't hold my interest as much as it would if I read it a whole lot of decades ago. Same goes for the numerous lectures on Greek history. It's just not where my interest lays, although I can surely see that it's intelligent and well-written. And you know, that makes me a little sad. Because I see that it's good and I want to like it, but here's where that whole different-century gap comes into place. Bummer (I must say that the essay on Socialism, however, was very interesting. It felt relevant to this day and age, which made me really like it).
And I saved the best, if that's what we're going to call it, for last. De Profundis. I don't think I have ever felt more sympathy and grief for a writer before reading this letter. An 80-page cry for help, it almost felt like. I related to Oscar on some parts which made me even sadder. And where I didn't relate to him (I mean, no, I wasn't thrown into prison by my blood sucking terrible friend) I felt I wanted to shake him up, and give him a strong hug for everything he had to endure. When Oscar, at the end of his letter, writes he wishes to hear from his "friend" again my heart almost sank right into my shoes. Poor Oscar. This cycle will not end as long as you let him take advantage of your heart so pure...

I can't believe I finished the whole Collected Works in only this short a period of time. I loved a lot of it, didn't feel much at some of it, but appreciate and respect every tiny word of it. I miss Oscar already.

i Love oscar wilde and that is all I have to say