Oscar Wilde saw the full potential of socialism and how it might free the human race. He warned us of authoritarian socialism. Wilde describes the individualistic nature of socialism, contrary to the collectivist and authoritarian versions we know.

At the same time it is hard to know if Wilde meant this short book to be taken seriously or whether he meant it as a satire of liberal thinkers and do-gooders.

As an artist in a capitalist society, Oscar Wilde fears most of all a socialism where everyone is poor and afraid. This excellent short book is a step towards many things. Perhaps above everything else, it argues that only artists can achieve the revolutionary.

This fascinating and brilliant book will allow all people to see that the likes of Oscar Wilde are the real revolutionaries among us, rather than all the Lenins, Bidens and Sunaks of this world.

"There is a sense, then, in which the true harbinger of communism is not the proletarian but the patrician, as Oscar Wilde, a man who believed devoutly in communism in between dinner parties, was ironically aware. What better image of the indolent future than the dandy and aristocrat? Wilde thus had a wonderful political rationalization for his extravagantly privileged existence: just lie around all day in loose crimson garments reading Plato and sipping brandy and be your own communist society. In what Marx calls pre-history, being idle means that you die; in post-history, it becomes the finest way to live."

Terry Eagleton