"Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it."
— P.J. O'Rourke
Oscar Wilde | First Editions
1854 - 1900
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 - 30 November 1900) Irish writer and poet, hugely successful playwright and novelist, master of the bon mot and the pithy aphorism, the very soul of the late Victorian literary era and its tragic sacrifice on the altar of respectability and hypocrisy. Very few figures capture the late-Victorian, slightly decadent, slightly silly, slightly sadistic, insanely creative fin-de-siecle period so completely as Oscar Wilde. His reputation as the leading aesthete of his day, equal parts hero and villain depending upon which side of the aesthetic argument you came down on, is well known. Parodied in Gilbert and Sullivan's "Patience" 1881 he immediately caught the imagination of the public and with the sponsorship of John Murray and the assistance of the bizarre and enigmatic Colonel Morse Oscar embarked on a wildly successful tour of the US.
See below our stock of Oscar Wilde First Editions, fine bindings, sets and other collectible material.
Results 1 - 9 (of 9)
The Importance of Being Earnest.
London: Samuel French Ltd, 26 Southampton St., n.d. [c.1900]. French's Acting Edition, 'The Dramatic Works of Oscar Wilde' No.1. pp.52. Publisher's decorative pale green paper covers printed in black with 'Gothic' title in two lines (some show the title over three lines, priority unknown). Original price 1d,.6s. Some trivial handling..... More about The Importance of Being Earnest
The Works of Oscar Wilde [set of writings/plays/novels including The Happy Prince, The Canterville Ghost, An Ideal Husband, The Ballad of Reading Gaol, The Selfish Giant, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Picture of Dorian Gray, A House of Pomegranates, De Profundis, Lady Windermere's Fan, The Duchess of Padua, A Woman of No Importance, Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, Salomé, A Florentine Tragedy, etc.]
London: The Edinburgh Society 1911. Literature. 14 volumes, Octavo. LIMITED MAGDALEN EDITION, number 30/480 sets. Frontispiece and other illustrations. Bound in half dark green oasis morocco with cloth sides, gilt rules to spine, raised bands, top edge gilt. Internally clean, exterior unmarked. A fine set in a superb recent leather binding. More about The Works of Oscar Wilde [set of writings/plays/novels including The Happy Prince, The...
The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Paris: Charles Carrington 1908. FIRST ILLUSTRATED EDITION. Quarto (26 x 20cm), pp.312. Illustrated with 7 full-page wood engravings by Eugene Dété from drawings by Paul Thiriat of Paris, with titled tissue guards. The publisher's note on the illustrations is tipped on to the half title (although dated 1908, the book... More about The Picture of Dorian Gray
Children In Prison and Other Cruelties of Prison Life.
London: Murdoch and Co., 1898. FIRST EDITION in book-form. Pamphlet, pp.16, printed wrappers. Trivial toning. A fine copy, but for the rust-through from the single staple at fold. The text of Wilde's celebrated letter to the Daily Chronicle, appearing on 28th May 1897, which concerned the affair of Warder T.... More about Children In Prison and Other Cruelties of Prison Life
Lady Windermere's Fan. A Play in Four Acts.
London: Samuel French, no date [circa 1893]. [Drama] EARLY IMPRESSION. Octavo pamphlet (18 x 13cm), pp.[2] 52 [2]. Sewn in green paper wrapper, lacking the back cover, with titles to front cover, including 'No. 2', denoting this as an early impression. Sewing a little loose, but holding. Back cover lost;... More about Lady Windermere's Fan. A Play in Four Acts
The Picture of Dorian Gray [within Four Complete Novels by Famous Authors from Lippincott's Monthly Magazine].
London: Ward, Lock, Bowden and Company, n.d. [c.1890]. FIRST PRINTING of the complete novel. The sheets of the magazine were printed in America and issued simultaneously in USA by Lippincott and in London by Ward, Lock. These monthly magazines contained a complete novel in each issue and many went unsold;..... More about The Picture of Dorian Gray [within Four Complete Novels by Famous Authors from Lippincott's...
The Sphinx.
London: John Lane, The Bodley Head, 1918. [Poetry] FIRST EDITION THUS. Small square octavo (15 x 14cm), pp.46; [2], advertisements. Publisher's pale green paper covered boards titled and illustrated in dark green to spine and front, in pictorial dust-wrapper (both illustrations by Charles Ricketts). Ink name to flyleaf, minor wear... More about The Sphinx
The Sphinx.
London, The Bodley Head. 1918. First edition thus. Small square 8vo. Publisher's pale green paper covered boards titled and illustrated in dark green to spine and front. Near fine, light edgewear, inner paper joint just starting. In a near fine example of the scarce dustwrapper, with minor toning and very... More about The Sphinx
A Woman of No Importance
London: Methuen and Co. 1922. Foolscap octavo, pp.[viii]; 182. Cheap edition, being the eleventh printing. Bound in original red cloth, trimmed in black, in original printed dust-jacket. Some expected age-toning to cheap paper, faint dampmark to flap (offset),. Jacket with some minor chips and tears; a clean, near fine copy. Mason. More about A Woman of No Importance
Results 1 - 9 (of 9)