What to read by Oscar Wilde?

[AnneEtAramis]

I have bought a calendar that has a quote from a different writer each month and I would like to read a book by each author every month. So, January is Oscar Wilde, what should I read? I have read Dorian Gray.

The Importance of Being Earnest would be a lovely start to the year.

Who do you have for the next 11 months?

Importance of being Earnest is fab. So are his fairy tales. And Essays. And poems. I'd just go for the complete works.

Importance of Being Earnest is wonderful . Dorian Grey also good.

Same user, but log in issues on different devices.

I think I will go with The Importance of being Earnest.

The other 11 (feel free to recommend):

Feb. Emily Dickinson
Mar. Charles Dickens
Apr. Jane Austen (I have read the main ones so will 're-read or try Lady Susan or a biography that I have)
May. Ernest Hemingway
Jun. Virginia Woolf (have read Mrs Dalloway and To the lighthouse. I have Flush on my Kindle but not sure)
Jul. William Shakespeare (not Macbeth, R&J, Othello - I might just try and go to the theatre for this one)
Aug. Agatha Christie (I have lots to chose from but suggestions welcome)
Sept. Charles Baudelaire
Oct. Mary Shelley (have read and loved Frankenstein)
NoV. Leo Tolstoy (Have read ANna Karenina so most likely War and Peace)
Dec. Georges Simenon - I have never heard of.

You have to read the Simenon in French ... (O'Level French. This is probably why I don't remember a single plot from any of them.)

Well my New Years resolution is to resolve the issue of my poor French, not sure it will be up to that standard by December though.

The Fairy Tales are beautiful and very moving. You can get gorgeous illustrated versions.

The P J Lynch version is stunning (it's not the complete tales)

www.amazon.co.uk/Oscar-Wilde-Stories-For-Children/dp/0340894369

This version is beautiful too. Charles Robinson

www.waterstones.com/book/classic-tales-of-oscar-wilde/oscar-wilde/charles-robinson/9781405264235

I'm very impressed that you'll only take the month of Nov to read War and Peace. It would take me a month of Sundays!

Oscar Wilde is my fave author Yy to his Fairy Stories esp The Little Prince but be prepared with a whole box of tissues. Or the picture of Dorian Grey is rather gothic and scarey!

Shakespeare, king Lear or Julius Caesar

Haha, well I will start it in November, it will probably take until 2017! Unless there are any other Tolstoy recommendations?

For Shakespeare, Hamlet is an obvious recommendation but still brilliant IMO.

For Dickens, it's a close call between Our Mutual Friend and Great Expectations.

Hemingway - I guess For Whom the Bell Tolls is a classic. The Paris Wife by Paula McLain is an interesting book to read alongside it.

And The Importance of Being Earnest is really fun.

I have read Great Expectations so Our Mutual Friend sounds like a good choice.

Thank you for the Hemingway suggestion. I have never read any Hemingway so am excited by this.

I'd have picked Bleak House as Dickens' best. It's the most complex, loads of characters and sub-plots, some of which intertwine, some don't and a really interesting dual narrative structure.

I second Bleak House for Dickens.

An Ideal Husband is another Oscar Wilde play in same vein as Importance of being Earnest. Both are pretty short "reads".

Charles Baudelaire - I only know Les Fleurs du Mal which are a collection of poems. Quite controversial themes for it's day.

Mary Shelley wrote a couple of historical novels: the fortunes of Perkin Welbeck being one, set around time of Henry VII. She also wrote an apocalyptic novel called The Last Man iirc.

Shakespeare plays have to be seen imo. I'd recommend some of his sonnets for a read.

Oh and for Virginnia Woolf, I recommend Orlando.

The Last Man sounds interesting, I will have a look for that.

I agree about Shakespeare so will see how I feel when it's his turn.

For some very silly crush orientated reasons Orlando is an exceptionally good choice.

I reckon if you start Bleak House in February, you'll have just about finished it by November, all ready for War and Peace .

I read BH for my A Levels, and it was a good read, but its another door-stop I'm afraid!

Haha. I also have some Zola and Dumas planned for this year so I probably should scrap everything else and buy a rucksack.