A celebration of the virtuoso of well-turned phrases and the master of the studied insult with this collection of his most acerbic quips.

No playwright apart from Shakespeare is as widely quoted and Oscar Wilde’s needle-sharp rejoinders are often repeated with delight. However, his jibes were rarely cruel, and displayed a profound understanding of the human character and its vanities.

Includes such notable quotes as:

‘Work is the curse of the drinking classes.’

‘All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That’s his.’ The Importance of Being Earnest

‘We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.’ Lady Windermere’s Fan

With a timeline of his life and quotations divided by themes, this book demonstrates why, more than a hundred years after his death, people are still drawn to Wilde’s dazzling repartee and the wicked brilliance of his social observations.