Includes bibliographical references (p. 183-188) and index.

Introduction -- Poems -- Prose: critical -- Prose: short fictional -- Prose: long fictional -- Plays -- Prison writings.

Oscar Wilde's reputation has shifted dramatically during the twentieth century from outcast in the wake of his trials for homosexual offences, to martyr to the gay cause in the 1980s and '90s, to important figure in the history of writing in English. Ruth Robbins introduces Wilde through a focus on his manipulations of genre and sets Wilde's life and work in its literary and cultural context.