Finished: An Ideal Husband, The Canterville Ghost, Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, The Young King (Wilde). I got a lovely book with some of Oscar Wilde's works and have spent the last day reading through it. I've decided Oscar Wilde will go on my favorite author's list. :-) When he's funny, writing plays with all kinds of quick wit and/or humorous misunderstandings like The Importance of Being Earnest, Lady Windermere's Fan or An Ideal Husband, he is at his best for me! His short stories were also poignant, yet with a little of the serious or disturbing thrown in. I'd say next on my list to read of Oscar Wilde's will be The Picture of Dorian Gray. I love this line from Lady Windermere in Lord Arthur Savile's Crime...."No, I am not at all cynical, I have merely experience; which, however, is very much the same thing."

I also loved this poem he wrote in honor of his little sister who died at the age of nine:

Requiescat

Tread lightly, she is near
Under the snow,
Speak gently, she can hear
The daisies grow.

All her bright golden hair
Tarnished with rust,
She that was young and fair
Fallen to dust.

Lily-like, white as snow,
She hardly knew
She was a woman, so
Sweetly she grew.

Coffin-board, heavy stone,
Lie on her breast,
I vex my heart alone,
She is at rest.

Peace, Peace, she cannot hear
Lyre or sonnet,
All my life's buried here,
Heap earth upon it.

AVIGNON