INTRODUCTION.
George Bernard Shaw ordered a special copy of this book of mine: "Oscar Wilde: His Life and Confessions," as soon as it was announced.
I sent it to him and asked him to write me his opinion of the book.
In due course I received the following MSS.

from him in which he tells me what he thinks of my work:--"the best life of Wilde, ...

Wilde's memory will have to stand or fall by it"; and then goes on to relate all his own meetings with Wilde, the impressions they made upon him and his judgment of Wilde as a writer and as a man.
He has given himself this labor, he says, in order that I may publish his views in the Appendix to my book if I think fit--an example, not only of Shaw's sympathy and generosity, but of his light way of treating his own kindness.
I am delighted to be able to put Shaw's considered judgment of Wilde beside my own for the benefit of my readers.

For if there had been anything I had misseen or misjudged in Wilde, or any prominent trait of his character I had failed to note, the sin, whether of omission or commission, could scarcely have escaped this other pair of keen eyes.
Now indeed this biography of Wilde may be regarded as definitive.
Shaw says his judgment of Wilde is severer than mine--"far sterner," are his words; but I am not sure that this is an exact estimate.
While Shaw accentuates Wilde's snobbishness, he discounts his "Irish charm," and though he praises highly his gifts as dramatist and story-teller he lays little stress on his genuine kindness of nature and the courteous smiling ways which made him so incomparable a companion and intimate.
On the other hand he excuses Wilde's perversion as pathological, as hereditary "giantism," and so lightens the darkest shadows just as he has toned down the lights.
I never saw anything abnormal in Oscar Wilde either in body or soul save an extravagant sensuality and an absolute adoration of beauty and comeliness; and so, with his own confessions and practises before me, I had to block him in, to use painters' jargon, with black shadows, and was delighted to find high lights to balance them--lights of courtesies, graces and unselfish kindness of heart.
On the whole I think our two pictures are very much alike and I am sure a good many readers will be almost as grateful to Shaw for his collaboration and corroboration as I am.
POSTSCRIPT Since writing this foreword I have received the proof of his contribution which I had sent to Shaw.

He has made some slight corrections in the text which, of course, have been carried out, and some comments besides on my notes as Editor.