Vintage Minis bring you the world's greatest writers on the experiences that make us human – from birth to death and everything in between

The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility.

Is lying simply an uncomfortable truth about life or something to be celebrated? In these dazzlingly witty pages we find deceptions of all kinds. From false names to imaginary friends to fictitious engagements, Wilde proves himself to be a connoisseur of creativity and argues that lying may be an art form in itself.

Selected from The Importance of Being Earnest, The Decay of Lying and The Picture of Dorian Gray 

Vintage Minis: Great Minds. Big Ideas. Little Books.

A series of short books by the world's greatest writers on the experiences that make us human

Also in the Vintage Minis series:

• Murder by Arthur Conan Doyle
• Power by William Shakespeare
• Jealousy by Marcel Proust
• Ghosts by M.R. James