Oscar Wilde was a prolific and spontaneous storyteller who once declared, “I cannot think otherwise than in stories.” Here are a handful of his shorter works that demonstrate his range, versatility, and skill as a storyteller, too often overshadowed by his reputation as a dramatist, critical theorist, and novelist. Wilde shows his wit in the social parodies “The Canterville Ghost,” “Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime,” “The Sphinx without a Secret,” and “The Model Millionare.” In “The Portrait of Mr. W.H.,” he identifies the mysterious dedicatee of Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Finally, the collection is rounded out by a selection of well known fairy tales, including “The Happy Prince,” “The Nightingale and the Rose,” “The Selfish Giant,” and “The Devoted Friend.”

Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin in 1854. He won scholarships to both Trinity College (Dublin) and Magdalen College (Oxford), where he was heavily influenced by the radical aesthetics of Walter Pater. Flamboyant wit and man-about-town, Wilde had a reputation that preceded him, especially in his early career. After publishing two volumes of short stories between 1887-91, his social-comedy plays such as Lady Windermere's Fan and The Importance of Being Earnest established his critical and commercial success. In 1895, Wilde was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for homosexual conduct, and died in obscurity a few years after his release.