Oscar Wilde - Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

Much taken up with attacks on Ross, Harris and Sherard.

Douglas, Lord Alfred. Without Apology (London, 1938)

Recognises error of his first book in 1914.

Douglas, Lord Alfred. Oscar Wilde: A Summing-Up (London, 1940)

Douglas’s final withdrawal of previous criticisms of Wilde.

Edwards, Owen Dudley. The Fireworks of Oscar Wilde (London, 1989)

The best excerpts from Wilde’s works with a splendidly idiosyncratic index.

Ellmann, Richard. The Artist as Critic: Critical Writings of Oscar Wilde (New York, 1969)

Ellmann, Richard (ed.). Oscar Wilde: A Collection of Critical Essays (Englewood Cliffs N.J.; London, 1969)

Ellmann, Richard. Oscar Wilde (London, 1987)

The best biography to date but must be read with Schroeder (see below).

Ervine, St John. Oscar Wilde: A Present Time Appraisal (London, 1951)

Unbalanced, overcritical, unfair but a period piece.

Fido, Martin. Oscar Wilde (London, 1973)

Copiously and sometimes interestingly illustrated but relies too heavily on dubious secondary sources.

Fletcher, Ian and John Stokes. ‘Oscar Wilde’ in Anglo-Irish Literature: A Review of Research , ed. Richard Finneran (New York, 1976), pp. 48-137

Fletcher, Ian and John Stokes. ‘Oscar Wilde’ in Recent Research in Anglo-Irish Writers , ed. Richard Finneran (New York, 1983), pp. 21-47

Both the above give an invaluable and critical survey of published work on Wilde, editions of his works and significant manuscripts discovered.

Furnell, John. The Stringed Lute: An Evocation in Dialogue of Oscar Wilde (London, 1955)

Gagnier, Regenia. Idylls of the Marketplace: Oscar Wilde and the Victorian Public (Stanford CA, 1986)

Gide, André. Oscar Wilde: In Memoriam (Paris, 1910)

Included in translation in: Stuart Mason’s Oscar Wilde: A Study (London, 1905); Ernest La Jeunesse et al. (see below); André Gide Oscar Wilde (London, 1951).

Goodman, Jonathan. The Oscar Wilde File (London, 1988)

Useful collection of contemporary newspaper accounts about Wilde.

[Grolleau, Charles]. The Trial of Oscar Wilde (Paris, 1906)

First but somewhat inaccurate account of the trials.

Harris, Frank. Oscar Wilde: His Life and Confessions (London; New York, 1916)

Often unreliable. Many anecdotes presented in dialogue form. Critical of Douglas. But a ‘techicolour’ account by one who knew Wilde personally. The 1918 reprint is important for Shaw’s appendix ‘My Memories of Oscar Wilde’.

Harris, Frank and Lord Alfred Douglas. New Preface to ‘The Life and Confessions of Oscar Wilde’ (London, 1925)

Destined as a true preface to the above but published separately by Douglas as an ‘apology’ from Harris.

[Hitchens, Robert]. The Green Carnation (London, 1894)

Thinly disguised satire on Wilde/Douglas relationship. Published anonymously at the time but reprinted in 1949 with Hitchens’ introductory note.

Holland, Merlin. The Wilde Album (London, 1997)

The most comprehensive of the pictorial biographies with around 250 illustrations, 30 of which were published for the first time.

Holland, Merlin. Irish Peacock and Scarlet Marquess: the Real Trial of Oscar Wilde (London, 2003)

The full text of the Queensberry libel trial from a previously unknown contemporary transcript. Three times as long as anything previously published.

Holland, Vyvyan. Oscar Wilde (London, 1960)

The first of the pictorial biographies. The first edition has superb gravure plates.

Holland, Vyvyan. Son of Oscar Wilde (London, 1954)

An account of how the scandal affected Wilde’s family.

Hopkins, R. Thurston. Oscar Wilde: A Study of the Man and His Work (London, 1913)

Housman, Laurence. Echo de Paris (London, 1923)

Reconstruction in dialogue of author’s last meeting with Wilde and Ross in Paris café.

Hyde, H. Montgomery. The Trials of Oscar Wilde (London, 1948; new enlarged edition, 1962)

A so-called ‘verbatim’ edition of the proceedings of the three trials the first of which is now superseded by Holland’s Irish Peacock.

Hyde, H. Montgomery. Oscar Wilde: The Aftermath (London, 1963)

First detailed account of Wilde’s last five years from imprisonment to death.

Hyde, H. Montgomery. Oscar Wilde (London, 1976)

Now superseded by Ellmann. Over a quarter of the book is taken up with the trials.

Hyde, H. Montgomery. The Annotated Oscar Wilde (London, 1982)

Selections from the works. Annotations partly literary, partly biographical, partly helpful, partly pedantic.

Hyde, H. Montgomery. Lord Alfred Douglas: A Biography (London, 1984)

Ingleby, Leonard Cresswell. Oscar Wilde (London, [1907])

Ingleby, Leonard Cresswell. Oscar Wilde: Some Reminiscences (London, [1912])

Jackson, John Wise (ed.). Aristotle at Afternoon Tea: The Rare Oscar Wilde (London, 1991)

Selection of Wilde’s journalism. Pick of the plums from the ‘Reviews’ and ‘Miscellanies’ vols of the 1908 Collected Works.

Jullian, Philippe. Oscar Wilde (Paris, 1967; Trs. London, 1967)

‘Gossipy rehearsal of Wilde’s career as wit and pederast’ said a reviewer. Unscholarly and fairly lightweight.

Kenilworth, Walter Winston. A Study of Oscar Wilde (New York, 1912)

A semi-mystical approach.

Kohl, Norbert. Oscar Wilde: Leben und Werk in Daten und Bildern (Frankfurt, 1976)

Many unusual photographs illustrating Wilde’s life and works.

Kohl, Norbert. Oscar Wilde: The Works of a Conformist Rebel (Heidelberg, 1980; Trs. Cambridge, 1989)

‘Advanced’ but very readable textual criticism by highly reliable German scholar.

Kronenberger, Louis. Oscar Wilde (Boston; Toronto, 1976)

La Jeunesse, Ernest; Franz Blei and André Gide. Recollections of Oscar Wilde Trs. Percival Pollard (Boston; London, 1906)

Langlade, Jacques de. Oscar Wilde: écrivain francais. (Paris, 1975)

Lemonnier, Léon. La Vie d’Oscar Wilde (Paris, 1931)

Interesting for view of Wilde’s downfall and exile in French press.

Lemonnier, Léon. Oscar Wilde (Paris, 1938)

Lewis, Lloyd and Henry J. Smith. Oscar Wilde Discovers America [1882] (New York, 1936)

McCormack, Jerusha (ed.). Wilde the Irishman (New Haven & London, 1998)

A collection of essays continuing the pioneering work by Coakley.

McKenna, Neil. The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde (London, 2003)

Gay interpretation of Wilde’s entire life. Contains much new source material but also much unfounded conjecture.

MacLiammóir, Micheál. The Importance of Being Oscar (Dublin, 1963)

Classic dramatisation of Wilde’s life by incomparable Irish actor.

Mason, Stuart [Christopher Millard]. Oscar Wilde: Art and Morality (London, 1908)

Reproduction of correspondence and criticisms occasioned by publication of The Picture of Dorian Gray together with a bibliography of all the foreign editions published.

Mason, Stuart [Christopher Millard]. Oscar Wilde: Three Times Tried (London, 1912)

First accurate account of the three trials. Superseded by Hyde who reproduces the facts in more readable form.

Mason, Stuart [Christopher Millard]. Oscar Wilde and the Aesthetic Movement (Dublin, 1920)

Melville, Joy. Mother of Oscar (London, 1994)

Comprehensively researched biography of Oscar’s mother.

Merle, Robert. Oscar Wilde (Paris, 1948; revised 1995)