Intentions

In four essays, two of them written as witty dialogues, Oscar Wilde sets out his ideas about art. In 'The Decay of Lying' he argues that art should not imitate nature and that, on the contrary, 'Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life'. 'Pen, Pencil and Poison' is a sketch of Thomas Griffiths Wainewright, an artist and critic who was also a poisoner. 'The Critic as Artist' claims that criticism is itself a creative art, and 'The Truth of Masks' discusses costume and archaeology in Shakespeare's plays.

Wilde published the book in 1891, the same year as the book version of The Picture of Dorian Gray, and it is the clearest statement of his aestheticism. Its paradoxes are still quoted wherever art and criticism are discussed. His later, sorrowful testament is De Profundis.

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) was born in Dublin, studied classics at Trinity College and Oxford, and became the most quotable man in London, the leading voice of the movement that preached art for art's sake. Between 1892 and 1895 his comedies filled the theatres, and his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, caused a sensation.

At the height of his fame he was convicted for his relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas and sentenced to two years of hard labour, an experience he wrote about in De Profundis. He died in exile in Paris, poor and broken, at forty-six. The Importance of Being Earnest remains one of the funniest plays in English.