The book contains selected works of Oscar Wilde in various genres. Central to it is the scandalously famous novel «The Picture of Dorian Gray», which became Wilde's calling card. Oscar Wilde loved to shock Victorian society — and prepared «Salomé» to be his most scandalous play. The reason for the ban on the production was the biblical theme, but the unconventional combination of religion with eroticism and the foreign language written in French worked against the play. The story «The Canterville Ghost» is a parody of Gothic literature, a satire on society with a touch of romance. The tales from several cycles, called by the author himself «studies in prose, for which the form of fantasy has been chosen». These mesmerizing stories reveal to the reader another Wilde — the creator of refined philosophical allegories about beauty and love, good and evil, life and death. Also included are «De Profundis. A Prison Confession», the poem «The Ballad of Reading Gaol», and poems.
