Three Wilde works are on this site, published between 1888 and 1895, and between them they cover the three things he did best: the fairy tale, the novel, and the stage comedy. The order is publication order.
The Happy Prince and Other Tales, from 1888, was written for his sons and is the least ironic thing he published. The Picture of Dorian Gray, two years later, is the opposite: a novel that was attacked as immoral in 1890 and revised and expanded for book form in 1891.
The Importance of Being Earnest, from 1895, is a play rather than a novel, and it is the last thing here. It opened in February 1895, at the height of his fame and a few weeks before the trials that ended his career.
Where to start
The Picture of Dorian Gray — the central Wilde text and the one that carries the most of his thinking about art and concealment. If you want the comedy, The Importance of Being Earnest takes about two hours to read.
Oscar Wilde in publication order
Numbered by first publication. Word counts and reading times are for the text on this site.
| # | Year | Title | Words | Reading time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1888 | The Happy Prince and Other Tales | 16,085 | 54 min | 1888; written for his sons. |
| 2 | 1890 | The Picture of Dorian Gray | 79,000 | 4.4 h | 1890 serial, expanded for book form in 1891. |
| 3 | 1895 | The Importance of Being Earnest | 21,349 | 1.2 h | 1895; a play in three acts. |
How to read Oscar Wilde
- Publication order. The Happy Prince and Other Tales, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Importance of Being Earnest, 1888 to 1895.
- Shortest first. The Happy Prince collection is about 16,000 words and Earnest about 21,000; Dorian Gray, the longest, is around 79,000.
- The comic Wilde. The Importance of Being Earnest, read aloud if you can. It is the fastest of the three and the one that survives quotation best.
Only Dorian Gray is a novel. Earnest is a play and The Happy Prince is a collection of stories, so the page counts differ in kind, not just in length. That is worth knowing before you decide what to read next.
Every title above has a page here with chapter summaries, the word count, reading time, and free EPUB, AZW3 and KEPUB files. Oscar Wilde’s shelf · Drama classics · Gothic and horror classics — or go back to Oscar Wilde for the full shelf.