Oscar Wilde

Long before he'd produced any of his great works, Oscar Wilde was already famous for being famous. Armed only with some witty epigrams, a carefully crafted persona and his genius for self-promotion, he had conquered America and transformed himself from nobody to star. 

This radio collection opens with four plays from Radio 4's Born to be Wilde season, offering a 21st Century perspective on the making of one of the first true celebrities. Includes The Importance of Being Earnest and An Ideal Husband alongside two plays by Marcy Kahan and Lavinia Murray exploring aspects of Wilde's life: The Warhol Years and Oscar and Constancy.

There is no peace for the malevolent Canterville ghost when an unruly American family takes over his ancestral home.

'De Profundis' is a bitter reproach, written from prison to his former love, Lord Alfred Douglas. 'The Ballad of Reading Gaol' is a deeply moving poem about the woes of prison life.

Includes 'The Nightingale and the Rose', The Selfish Giant', 'The Devoted Friend', and 'The Remarkable Rocket'.

First performed on 14 February 1895, this most popular of Oscar Wilde's plays is a farcical comedy of confusions of identity. Also included are rare recordings of John Gielgud reading poems by Donne, Shelley, Byron, Kingsley, Rossetti, Tennyson and Shakespeare.

A palmist’s prediction leads to murder; an enigmatic woman’s lifestyle is a mystery to be solved; a ghost tries to frighten the new tenants of his home; a man has discovered the dedicatee of Shakespeare’s Sonnets; a millionaire wants to be painted as a pauper. Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime and Other Stories is a collection of fascinating short stories which are subversive as well as entertaining. Also included in this audiobook is The Birthday of the Infanta from A House of Pomegranates. An ugly dwarf loves a beautiful princess, but how will his feelings fare in a cruel society

Dorian Gray is an extremely good-looking young man., who has his portrait painted. One evening he realises that soon his beauty will fade and he makes a deal with the devil that he will retain his youth and his portrait will grow old.