Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) was an Irish playwright, novelist, poet, and author of short stories. Born in Dublin to Anglo-Irish intellectuals, his mother was a poet and Irish nationalist who wrote under the pen name Speranza, and his father was a renowned eye and ear surgeon and author of works on archaeology and folklore. Wilde excelled as a classicist at Trinity College Dublin and later at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he became associated with the emerging Aestheticism movement, influenced by his tutors Walter Pater and John Ruskin. After university, he moved to London, where his flamboyant dress, biting wit, and conversational skill made him a prominent cultural figure. He lectured in the United States and Canada on art and interior decoration, and later wrote reviews for periodicals. In the early 1890s, he refined his ideas on the supremacy of art in essays and dialogues, and published his only novel, *The Picture of Dorian Gray* (1890), which explored themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty. He then turned to drama, writing the society comedies that made him one of the most successful playwrights of late-Victorian London, including *An Ideal Husband* and *The Importance of Being Earnest* (both 1895). At the height of his fame, Wilde sued the Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel over his relationship with the Marquess’s son, Lord Alfred Douglas. The case collapsed, leading to Wilde’s own arrest and conviction for gross indecency. He was sentenced to two years’ hard labour, the maximum penalty. While imprisoned, he wrote *De Profundis*, a long letter reflecting on his spiritual journey. After his release in 1897, he left Britain forever, living in France and Italy, where he wrote his last work, *The Ballad of Reading Gaol* (1898), a poem about prison life. He died in France in 1900.