The four great comedies of Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest, were all written at the height of the controversial Irish author's powers in his last, doomed decade, the 1890s. They remain among the most-loved, and most-quoted, of all drama in the English language. Along with Salome, his darkly decadent dramatization of the Bible story, these immortal plays continue to pack theatres, and have been adapted for every kind of media. This Macmillan Collector's Library edition of The Importance of Being Earnest & Other Plays echoes the book form in which Wilde originally insisted his plays were published, and includes illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley and an afterword by Ned Halley.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover.

Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin in 1854. He studied there, at Trinity College, and then at Oxford, where he founded the cult of aestheticism. He published several books of stories, and one novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, in 1891. He had many successes as a playwright, first with Lady Windermere's Fan in 1892, and all his plays were performed in London between 1892 and 1895. A dazzling wit and flamboyant figure, Wilde's career was cut short after his homosexuality was exposed, and he was sentenced to two years' imprisonment in 1895. Released in 1897, he fled to France where he died a broken man in 1900.