Contents
Oscar Wilde
Writing The Importance of Being Earnest and The Picture of Dorian Gray, with wit that exposes social hypocrisy.
The Picture of Dorian Gray · The Importance of Being Earnest
- Born
- 16 October 1854
- Birthplace
- Dublin, Ireland
- Died
- 30 November 1900
More people
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde made elegance and provocation central to his public identity. His comedies question respectable society’s assumptions, while his imprisonment for relationships with men abruptly ended his London theatrical success.
Early life
A literary Dublin home
His mother Jane Wilde wrote poetry and supported Irish nationalism; his father William Wilde was a surgeon and antiquarian.
Classics and aesthetics
He studied at Trinity College Dublin and Oxford, where classical learning and ideas about beauty shaped his writing.
Career
- 1880s
A public literary figure
Lectures, essays, poetry and fairy tales established his reputation and distinctive style.
- 1890–1891
Dorian Gray
His only novel appeared first in a magazine, then in an expanded book edition.
- 1892–1895
London stage success
A sequence of social comedies culminated in The Importance of Being Earnest.
- 1895–1900
Prison and exile
Conviction under laws criminalising sex between men led to two years in prison, followed by life in France.
Selected work
The Picture of Dorian Gray
A portrait bears the consequences of a young man’s actions while his own appearance stays unchanged.
The Importance of Being Earnest
Invented identities expose the absurdity of fashionable respectability and marriage conventions.
The Ballad of Reading Gaol
His experience of prison informs a poem about punishment, suffering and an execution.
Beyond work
Marriage and children
He married Constance Lloyd, and they had two sons, Cyril and Vyvyan.
A relationship with consequences
His relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas became entangled with the legal proceedings that destroyed his career in Britain.
Sources & photo credit
Life and career ↗Institutional or specialist reference ↗Photo: Napoleon Sarony / Adam Cuerden. Public domain · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
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