You know how money can't buy happiness?

Right.

Oscar Wilde knew better and offers up a fable that pokes fun at money, marriage, and identity.

This week's Selected Shorts show is curated by death, sex, and money host Anna Sale.

I'm Meg Wallitzer. Stay with us.

You're listening to Selected Shorts, where our greatest actors transport us through the magic of fiction, one provocative concept at the heart of the Declaration of Independence.

What exactly is happiness, and how do we go about pursuing something so intangible?

We've been offered a few interpretations over the years. Mahatma Gandhi believed that happiness

is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. American singer-songwriter

Bobby McFerrin counseled, don't worry, be happy. And of course, Pean's creator Charles

M. Schultz, had the simplest solution. Happiness is a warm puppy. Still, there's clearly a lot more

to say. And not long ago, we partnered with death, sex, and money host Anna Sale for a live

evening at Symphony Space. Her long-running program, born of the

realization that its three topics are ones we all spent a lot of time thinking about, also makes a

perfect entree for fiction. This is the second of two shows featuring stories from that evening,

and our selections are very different, which means we have even more to talk about.

The first is a gently satirical tale of love and good fortune, the second a poignant and imaginative

requiem. Our first story is by the brilliant and protean Oscar Wilde, best known for plays such as

the importance of being earnest and Lady Windermere's fan,

but a gifted satirist in any mode. His gimlet eye and ear for every sort of social folly made

him a sensation, and although the world of his plays reflects 19th century social mores,

they are produced frequently and still speak to us today. Wilde's

...