Wilde considered including this pamphlet and "The Portrait of Mr. W. H.", his essay-story on Shakespeare's sonnets, in a new anthology in 1891, but eventually decided to limit it to purely aesthetic subjects. "Intentions" packaged revisions of four essays: "The Decay of Lying"; "Pen, Pencil and Poison"; "The Truth of Masks" (first published 1885); and "The Critic as Artist" in two parts. For Pearson the biographer, the essays and dialogues exhibit every aspect of Wilde's genius and character: wit, romancer, talker, lecturer, humanist and scholar and concludes that "no other productions of his have as varied an appeal". 1891 turned out to be Wilde's "annus mirabilis"; apart from his three collections he also produced his only novel.