This is the only edition of Vera; or, The Nihilists , Oscar Wilde's first play, to be based on all known manuscripts and author-annotated copies of the text. Rob Marland, the author of Oscar Wilde's First Tragedy , draws on over fifty reviews and other first-hand accounts of the 1883 premiere to reveal how the play was originally performed. An introduction summarises the history of the play, from composition to production and reception, and evaluates why the play failed. The 1882 text of the play is provided with a Critical Apparatus that details differences between that text and the 1880 text and other textual witnesses to the play's composition and revision. Transcriptions of early manuscripts and manuscripts relating to later revisions are also provided. Commentary is set on the same page for ease of use, and documents Wilde's intertextual and historical allusions, actors' performance choices, and critics' responses. Rob Marland is the author of Oscar Wilde's First Tragedy: The Composition, Production, and Reception of Vera; or, The Nihilists (2026) and the editor of Oscar Wilde: The Complete Interviews (2022). He is a member of the editorial board of The Wildean , the journal of the Oscar Wilde Society.