Brilliant and tragic, decadent yet radical, a socialist dandy and a witty moralist, Oscar Wilde embodied all the contradictions of the 1890s. The scope of his genius is indicated in this volume by the inclusion of the period's most scintillating comedy--The Importance of Being Earnest; its most notorious novel--The Picture of Dorian Gray; and its most haunting elegy--The Ballad of Reading Gaol; together with a selection of his most acclaimed essays...