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Collected Stories
From the Publisher
Does the ghost of Sir Simon de Canterville really exist? And if he does, will he meet his match in the Otis family? Or will the rambunctious Otis children be the very death of him? The answers lie in these witty, hilarious tales.
Does the ghost of Sir Simon de Canterville really exist? And if he does, will he meet his match in the Otis family? Or will the rambunctious Otis children be the very death of him? The answers lie in these witty, hilarious tales.
Audio Cassette
Published January 1, 1986
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About the author
Oscar Wilde
5,598 books39k followersOscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and his criminal conviction for gross indecency for homosexual acts.
Wilde's parents were Anglo-Irish intellectuals in Dublin. In his youth, Wilde learned to speak fluent French and German. At university, he read Greats; he demonstrated himself to be an exceptional classicist, first at Trinity College Dublin, then at Magdalen College, Oxford. He became associated with the emerging philosophy of aestheticism, led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles.
Wilde tried his hand at various literary activities: he wrote a play, published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on "The English Renaissance" in art and interior decoration, and then returned to London where he lectured on his American travels and wrote reviews for various periodicals. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversational skill, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day. At the turn of the 1890s, he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into what would be his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). Wilde returned to drama, writing Salome (1891) in French while in Paris, but it was refused a licence for England due to an absolute prohibition on the portrayal of Biblical subjects on the English stage. Undiscouraged, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late-Victorian London.
At the height of his fame and success, while An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) were still being performed in London, Wilde issued a civil writ against John Sholto Douglas, the 9th Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel. The Marquess was the father of Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. The libel hearings unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and criminal prosecution for gross indecency with other males. The jury was unable to reach a verdict and so a retrial was ordered. In the second trial Wilde was convicted and sentenced to two years' hard labour, the maximum penalty, and was jailed from 1895 to 1897. During his last year in prison he wrote De Profundis (published posthumously in abridged form in 1905), a long letter that discusses his spiritual journey through his trials and is a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure. On the day of his release, he caught the overnight steamer to France, never to return to Britain or Ireland. In France and Italy, he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life.
Wilde's parents were Anglo-Irish intellectuals in Dublin. In his youth, Wilde learned to speak fluent French and German. At university, he read Greats; he demonstrated himself to be an exceptional classicist, first at Trinity College Dublin, then at Magdalen College, Oxford. He became associated with the emerging philosophy of aestheticism, led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles.
Wilde tried his hand at various literary activities: he wrote a play, published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on "The English Renaissance" in art and interior decoration, and then returned to London where he lectured on his American travels and wrote reviews for various periodicals. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversational skill, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day. At the turn of the 1890s, he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into what would be his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). Wilde returned to drama, writing Salome (1891) in French while in Paris, but it was refused a licence for England due to an absolute prohibition on the portrayal of Biblical subjects on the English stage. Undiscouraged, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late-Victorian London.
At the height of his fame and success, while An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) were still being performed in London, Wilde issued a civil writ against John Sholto Douglas, the 9th Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel. The Marquess was the father of Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. The libel hearings unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and criminal prosecution for gross indecency with other males. The jury was unable to reach a verdict and so a retrial was ordered. In the second trial Wilde was convicted and sentenced to two years' hard labour, the maximum penalty, and was jailed from 1895 to 1897. During his last year in prison he wrote De Profundis (published posthumously in abridged form in 1905), a long letter that discusses his spiritual journey through his trials and is a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure. On the day of his release, he caught the overnight steamer to France, never to return to Britain or Ireland. In France and Italy, he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 5, 2013
Great stories made all the better by Frank Muller's excellent audio narration. Loved the mix of eeriness along with Wilde's classic, clever humor.
April 28, 2021
I can't believe I hadn't read Oscar Wilde's fairy tales before. They are delightful, for fans of Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm, but with that characteristic wit.
May 29, 2009
To be honest, I think I prefer his stories to his fairy-tales.
Lord Arthur Sackville’s Crime is a wonderful story, and has much in common with that old Rolling Stones song – Fortune Teller – “Now, I’m a happy fellow, I’m in love with a fortune teller, we’re as happy was we can be, and I get my fortune told for free.”
I was shown The Canterville Ghost as a film in high school. A very cute story about the differences between Brits and Americans. There is a lovely line in this story which needs to be quoted:
“Indeed, in many respects, she was quite English, and as an excellent example of the fact that we have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language.”
I found the fairy-tales all a bit too obvious and perhaps even heavy handed.
All the same, these were a pleasant few hours.
Lord Arthur Sackville’s Crime is a wonderful story, and has much in common with that old Rolling Stones song – Fortune Teller – “Now, I’m a happy fellow, I’m in love with a fortune teller, we’re as happy was we can be, and I get my fortune told for free.”
I was shown The Canterville Ghost as a film in high school. A very cute story about the differences between Brits and Americans. There is a lovely line in this story which needs to be quoted:
“Indeed, in many respects, she was quite English, and as an excellent example of the fact that we have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language.”
I found the fairy-tales all a bit too obvious and perhaps even heavy handed.
All the same, these were a pleasant few hours.
never-finished
December 31, 2010This one got lost in the computer reformatting. Haven't been motivated to re-check it out yet.
August 15, 2011
Recently, I saw an online Oscar Wilde witticism generator, and now all his bon mots sound formulaic. Thanks for ruining it, internet.
February 23, 2016
Good stories
March 16, 2018
My first time reading Oscar Wilde. Hilarious, clever, lovely. Amazing narration by Frank Muller, too.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews