“There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.”

What does it mean?

Wilde argues that a book should be judged as art, by the quality of its writing, not by whether its story is good or bad behaviour.

Key vocabulary

immoral

wrong or wicked by normal standards of behaviour

• “We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language.”– Oscar Wilde
• “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”– Oscar Wilde
• “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”– Oscar Wilde
• “Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about it.”– Oscar Wilde