The Complete Short Fiction

Resumen del libro

He saw a most wonderful sight. Through a little hole in the wall the children had crept in the trees were so glad to have the children back again that they had covered themselves with blossoms'

Fairy tales, ghost stories, detective fiction and comedies of manners the stories collected in this volume made Oscar Wilde's name as a writer of fiction, showing breathtaking dexterity in a wide range of literary styles. Victorian moral justice is comically inverted in Lord Arthur Savile's Crime' and The Canterville Ghost', and society's materialism comes under sharp, humorous criticism in The Model Millionaire', while The Happy Prince' and The Nightingale and the Rose' are hauntingly melancholic in their magical evocations of selfless love. These small masterpieces convey the brilliance of Wilde's vision, exploring complex moral issues through an elegant juxtaposition of wit and sentiment.

This edition includes the complete texts of Wilde's three volumes of short fiction, together with The Portrait of Mr W. H.'. Ian Small's introduction discusses Wilde's life, the cultural and literary background to his fiction, and the complex ways in which it can be read.

Biografía del autor

Novelista, poeta, crítico literario y autor teatral de origen irlandés, gran exponente del esteticismo, Oscar Wilde conoció el éxito desde sus comienzos gracias al ingenio punzante y epigramático que derrochó en sus obras, dedicadas casi siempre a fustigar a sus contemporáneos. Defensor del arte por el arte, sus relatos repletos de diálogos vivos y cargados de ironía provocaron feroces críticas de los sectores conservadores, que se acentuaron cuando Wilde fue acusado y condenado por su homosexualidad, lo que originó el declive de su carrera literaria y de su vida personal. Entre sus obras destacan las cuatro comedias teatrales El abanico de lady Windermere (1892), Una mujer sin importancia (1893), Un marido ideal (1895) y La importancia de llamarse Ernesto (1895), El fantasma de Canterville o El retrato de Dorian Gray, su única novela.