LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABBREVIATIONS INTRODUCTION PART ONE:THE WRITER AND HIS SETTING Chronology 1 BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL CONTEXT Family life:Lady Wilde and Mrs Oscar Wilde Ireland Homosexuality The myth of Wilde PART TWO:AESTHETIC AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY 2 CRITICAL WRITINGS Lectures Journalism The Woman's World The Soul of Man Under Socialism' Critical dialogues 3 THEATRE PRACTICE AND INNOVATION PART THREE:CRITICAL SURVEY 4 POETRY Poems The Ballad of Reading Gaol 5 SHORT FICTION The Happy Prince The House of Pomegranates Aesthetic criticism Aaesthetic prose:The Fisherman and his Soul Newspaper fiction:Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Otheer Stories 6 THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAR 7 SALOME,SALOME,AND SYMBOLIST THEATRE 8 THE SOCIAL COMEDIES Lady Windermere's Fan A Woman of No Importance An Ideal Husband The Importance of Being Eamest 9 LETTERS De Profundis' On prison reform PART FOUR:REERENCE SECTION 10 WILDE AND HIS CERCLE Gazetteer Short glossary of critical terms Further reading INDEX