Where to start with Oscar Wilde

[Guido]

Never having read anything by the man and surveying his work list here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_works_by_Oscar_Wilde I'm a bit lost as to where to start. What's considered his best work?

[DavidW]

I've read The Picture of Dorian Gray and it's pretty good.

[Herman]

or The Importance of Being Earnest.

However Oscar Wilde is not really all that good. It's more that it was good he was there at the time.

[bhodges]

The Importance of Being Earnest is one of my favorite plays--and favorite comedies--ever.  In the right hands (i.e., with a good director and cast) it runs like chamber music.

You might try De Profundis, a letter written when he was in prison.  FYI, Frederic Rzewski composed a solo piano piece using the text (with the same title), in which the pianist speaks and sings while playing.  It's quite effective, and touching.

--Bruce

[stlukesguild]

The Picture of Dorian Gray is perhaps the ideal starting point... containing as it does the famous introduction which outlines his thoughts on Art pour l'art. The Importance of Being Earnest I would also second as perhaps the best of his plays. After that? Check into his other plays and surely look into the marvelous quotes by him. No one was ever wittier:

To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.

One man's poetry is another man's poison.

A gentleman is one who never hurt's anyone's feelings unintentionally.

The public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything - except what is worth knowing.

Alas, I am dying beyond my means.

One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards.

The English public take no interest in a work of art until it is told that the work in question is obscene.

Women's styles may change but their designs remain the same.

Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.

America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.

Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.

I am not young enough to know everything.

Beauty is a form of genius - is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no explanation. It is of the great facts in the world like sunlight, or springtime, or the reflection in dark water of that silver shell we call the moon.

Bigamy is having one wife too many. Monogamy is the same.

I can resist everything except temptation.

I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their intellects. A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.

Life is too important to be taken seriously.

Pessimist: One who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both.

The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything.

There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.

Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.

Work is the curse of the drinking classes.

[Josquin des Prez]

America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.

Hahaha

[Harry]

It doesn't matter where you begin with Wilde, as long as you understand the man behind the words.

[lisa needs braces]

It doesn't matter where you begin with Wilde, as long as you understand the man behind the words.

Why do you put everything in italics? 

[Josquin des Prez]

It doesn't matter where you begin with Wilde, as long as you understand the man behind the words.

You mean the fact he liked other men?

[karlhenning]

"The Ballad of Reading Gaol"

You mean the fact he liked other men?

Can always count on you for the 2-D perpective, can't we! LOL

[Harry]

You mean the fact he liked other men?

Not quite, no!

[Florestan]

One more:

The cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing

[Bogey]

I've read The Picture of Dorian Gray and it's pretty good.

And I agree with David.  In fact, it was "pretty good" enough to crack my top 10 fictional works.