Oscar Wilde Books in Order

An American family refuses to fear an English house ghost.

Five fairy tales test kindness, love, pride and sacrifice.

A man stays young while his portrait records his sins.

Four fairy tales link beauty and desire with suffering.

Four essays examine art, criticism, and their relationship to life.

A young wife suspects her husband and tests her principles.

A princess desires a prophet who rejects her.

A mother’s secret threatens her son’s chance to advance.

A politician’s hidden past threatens his marriage and public standing.

Two men’s false identities complicate their plans for marriage.

A writer in prison examines love, blame, and suffering.

A critic considers books, art, manners and taste.

Fortune tellers, ghosts and secrets unsettle lives and expectations.

Poems of beauty and belief give way to prison suffering.

Book reviews examine literature and the grounds of artistic judgment.

Begin with this familiar Gothic novel, where Wilde's wit meets questions of beauty and conscience.

Turn next to sparkling comedy, enjoying Wilde's dialogue without the novel's darker atmosphere.

This short ghost story offers an easy bridge between Wilde's humor and his tenderness.

These accessible fairy tales reveal the compassion beneath the wit you have already encountered.

Return to the stage for social comedy with sharper questions about reputation and moral judgment.

Build on those social concerns with a comedy connecting private conduct, marriage, and public life.

Continue through society drama with a more pointed examination of respectability and unequal moral standards.

Broaden your view of Wilde's storytelling through satire, mystery, and speculation about art.

Revisit fairy tales in richer, more elaborate prose, with stronger tensions between beauty and suffering.

Try this concentrated tragedy once Wilde's ornate language and darker interests feel more familiar.

Now explore the arguments about art and criticism that illuminate the fiction and plays.

Explore Wilde's verse after his prose, moving between aesthetic concerns and the experience of imprisonment.

Read this prison letter with a fuller sense of Wilde's artistic concerns and emotional range.

With the major creative works behind you, explore Wilde's critical judgments across books and culture.

Finish with shorter critical pieces, best appreciated once his tastes and arguments are familiar.