With the possible exceptions of the Greek Anthology, the Golden Treasury and those which bear the name of E. V. Lucas, no selections of poetry or prose have ever given complete satisfaction to anyone except the compiler. But critics derive great satisfaction from pointing out errors of omission and inclusion on the part of the anthologist, and all of us have putatively re-arranged and re-edited even the Golden Treasury in our leisure moments. In an age when Art for Arts sake is an exploded doctrine, anthologies, like everything else, must have a purpose. The purpose or object of the present volume is to afford irers of Wilde's work the same innocent pleasure obtainable from similar compilations, namely that of reconstructing a selection of their own in their minds eye for copyright considerations would interfere with the materialisation of their dream.

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