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Oscar Wilde

18 free books by Oscar Wilde. 18 you can read right here. This page also links to 1 index of works; it is not counted as a book or a free copy.

Born 1854 in Dublin · Died 1900 in Paris

writer, novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, author, screenwriter · United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Ireland · associated with Aestheticism, Decadent movement

Notable works: The Importance of Being Earnest, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Canterville Ghost, The Soul of Man under Socialism, The Ballad of Reading Gaol

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Facts from Wikidata (Q30875), retrieved 2026-09-26.

Also by Oscar Wilde: read here

Short stories and shorter works by Oscar Wilde

Quotes from Oscar Wilde’s books

Verified word for word in the text: each quote is copied exactly from the book’s text in this site’s reader (the Project Gutenberg e-text named under each book) and links to its passage; when this page was built, every quote was checked word for word against that text. How RedLectern is built.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

From Project Gutenberg e-text #26740 (public domain in the USA).

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.

— Spoken by a character · Chapter II

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Nowadays people know the price of everything, and the value of nothing.

— Spoken by a character · Chapter IV

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The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People

From Project Gutenberg e-text #844 (public domain in the USA).

In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity is the vital thing.

— Gwendolen · III. Drawing-Room at the Manor House, Woolton

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The truth is rarely pure and never simple.

— Algernon · III. Drawing-Room at the Manor House, Woolton

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