Oscar Wild's infamous wit, taste for scandal, and gift for revealing the hypocrisies of fashionable society are featured here in this collection of his finest plays. A genius both of and ahead of his time, he built his craft on the eternal questions of right and wrong - with pithy, dialogue as fresh today as when it was written. In addition to Wilde's five major plays, this Signet Classics edition contains: Two interviews with the playwright at the peak of his career, in which Wilde discusses his work - and his critics ; Some of his most brilliant critical writing, in which he discusses the nature of art in terms that anticipate much of today's literary theory ; An appendix that restores valuable lines that appeared in the original text of The Importance of Being Earnest ; With an introduction by Sylvan Barnet and a new Afterword by Marylu Hill.