Oscar Wilde was an Irish playwright and novelist known for his sharp wit. Celebrated primarily for his plays and the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde is remembered as a key literary figure of the Victorian era.
If you enjoy reading books by Oscar Wilde then you might also like the following authors:
If Oscar Wilde's social humor appeals to you, try George Bernard Shaw. Shaw's plays poke fun at society, manners, and especially British upper-class pretensions. He uses biting wit and clever dialogue to highlight hypocrisy and question traditions.
A great place to start is Pygmalion, where Shaw explores class and language with a sharp, often humorous, eye.
Noël Coward offers the sparkling wit and elegance Wilde's fans love. His plays use sharp humor and sophisticated dialogue to gently mock high society's morals and manners.
In Private Lives, Coward examines romantic relationships, social conventions, and personal freedom through witty banter and comic misunderstandings.
Max Beerbohm has a distinctive style blending playful satire, irony, and refined charm that would appeal to Wilde readers. Like Wilde, Beerbohm gently ridicules society's absurdities and pretensions.
Try Zuleika Dobson, a humorous fantasy where an irresistibly charming heroine disrupts life at Oxford—clever, whimsical, and quite funny.
Saki writes sharp, witty, and darkly humorous short stories that expose human nature and social conventions. His humor has the mischievous enjoyment of Wilde, though with a bleaker edge.
One classic is The Complete Saki, where his clever, often unsettling humor shows how fragile our polite façades can be.
Ronald Firbank's novels blend subtle humor, eccentric characters, and a love for style and flamboyance in a way Wilde fans would recognize. He playfully mocks social pretensions and delights in witty dialogue and luxurious settings.
Consider Valmouth, a novel that portrays eccentric and absurdly comic characters in a highly stylized British seaside resort.
Aubrey Beardsley was an illustrator and writer famous for dark humor, satirical wit, and elegant ornamental style. Like Wilde, Beardsley enjoyed challenging conventions through striking imagery with decadent themes.
Readers who appreciate Wilde's sharp social commentary would enjoy Beardsley's illustrated novel Under the Hill. It humorously reimagines the romantic medieval legend of Venus and Tannhäuser, filled with wit, sophisticated language, and provocative imagery.
Algernon Charles Swinburne was a poet who embraced beauty, sensuality, and taboo topics through bold and lyrical verse. His writings often shock readers by celebrating freedom and pushing societal boundaries, themes that listeners of Wilde would find familiar.
Swinburne's Poems and Ballads explore passionate emotions and transgressive desires, earning admiration from readers who appreciate Wilde's fearless embrace of art and self-expression.
Walter Pater was an influential essayist and critic whose ideas strongly shaped Wilde's philosophy of artistic beauty. Pater valued art, emotion, and aesthetic experience over morality or practicality, a stance readers who enjoy Wilde's aesthetics will appreciate.
In his notable work, Studies in the History of the Renaissance, Pater argues elegantly for art's central position in a fulfilling human life, beautifully expressed through thoughtful prose and sensitive insights.
Joris-Karl Huysmans was a French novelist who offered captivating portrayals of decadence, excess, and aesthetic obsession. Like Wilde, Huysmans explored the tension between beauty, pleasure, and morality through complex characters and rich, vivid storytelling.
His novel À Rebours (Against Nature) is an immersive and decadent journey into the life of a disillusioned aristocrat, appealing to Wilde enthusiasts fascinated by refined eccentricity and the aesthetics of excess.
Stéphane Mallarmé was a poet who crafted his verses in meticulous, symbolic, and enigmatic style. He focused on the aesthetic and sensory experience of language much like Wilde experimented with forms of expression.
Mallarmé's innovative, symbol-rich poetry, exemplified in L'après-midi d'un faune (The Afternoon of a Faun), invites readers into a world where art reigns supreme, appealing to people drawn to Wilde's elegant wordplay and aesthetic philosophy.
If you enjoy Oscar Wilde's sharp wit and social satire, Lord Byron may appeal to you. Byron was a Romantic poet famous for his charismatic and rebellious personality, reflected in his lively, ironic verse. He often tackled themes of love, individualism, and social critique.
His epic poem, Don Juan, combines humor, drama, and sharp commentary on society and morality, making it perfect for Wilde enthusiasts.
Percy Bysshe Shelley was a Romantic poet known for his lyrical and imaginative style. Like Oscar Wilde, Shelley often commented on social injustices and explored themes of beauty, truth, and individuality.
His poetry has a deeply philosophical yet elegant charm, showing a love for nature and human freedom. One of his most famous works, Ozymandias, reflects on human pride, power, and ruin in a concise, thoughtful manner that Wilde readers can appreciate.
Readers who enjoy Oscar Wilde's sharp social observations might like W. Somerset Maugham's insightful stories. Maugham's writing style is clear, witty, and filled with thoughtful character studies.
In his novel The Razor's Edge, he examines issues of personal discovery, spirituality, and societal conventions, themes Wilde himself explored. Maugham's blend of humor, cynicism, and humane observation might be a perfect match for Wilde fans.
Evelyn Waugh, like Oscar Wilde, is known for his satirical novels about upper-class British society. He has a wicked sense of humor and an eye for exposing the hypocrisy and absurdities of society.
In Brideshead Revisited, Waugh explores nostalgia, religious themes, class issues, and decadence through witty dialogue and sharp, precise prose. Wilde readers may find Waugh's similar talent for social critique and sophisticated wit thoroughly enjoyable.
Virginia Woolf offers a different flavor than Oscar Wilde but will intrigue readers who appreciate Wilde's exploration of individual identity and psychological depth.
Woolf's novels focus on internal thoughts, emotions, and perceptions of her characters, often examining social expectations and personal freedom.
One notable work, Mrs. Dalloway, beautifully captures these themes, exploring one character's day, inner world, and memories with subtlety and emotional depth. Wilde fans who appreciate insightful and introspective writing will find Woolf's work rewarding.