Collected works of Оscar Wilde, Wodrdsworth Editions 1997

Among Oscar Wilde's twenty or so works—his only novel, fairy tales, plays, and essays—his four remarkable comedies definitely stand out.

Lady Windermere's Fan, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband, and The Importance of Being Earnest are plays in which the playwright's skill in weaving intrigues with always unexpected endings, his subtle sense of humor, his inimitable sense of paradox, along with his critical attitude towards the hypocrisy of a society with high but unfounded pretensions, reach their undisputed peak. These are comedies that provoke not the Homeric laughter of the man in the street, but the approving smile of the aesthete and connoisseur. In which satire sometimes gives way to lyrical goodwill and the affirmation of human moral values. "The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it," says Wilde. Let the reader yield to the temptation that these magnificent plays represent.