{\b Oscar Wilde}.

{\b Date of Birth}.: 16 October 1854 

{\b Date of Death}.: 30 November 1900

{\b Works}.

Irish wit, poet and dramatist. 
Probably best known for his play; The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), other 
plays include Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), A Woman of No Importance (1893) 
and  An Ideal Husband (1895), Salome (in French and first performed 1896) and 
his first play Vera (first performed 1883). He also wrote fairy stories The 
Happy Prince (1888) and The House of Pomegranates (1891), short stories Lord 
Arthur Savile's Crime, and other stories (1891), his only novel The Picture of 
Dorian Grey (1891). Other works include a collection of essays Intentions 
(1891), and The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898). Wilde was the key figure in the 
late 19th century Aesthetic movement in England, which advocated art for art's 
sake.

{\b Featured Works}.

'The Importance of Being Earnest', 'Lady Windermere's Fan', 'The Picture of Dorian 
Gray', 'The Devoted Friend', 'The Happy Prince', 'The Nightingale and the Rose', 
'The Remarkable Rocket', 'The Selfish Giant', 'On the Recent Sale by Auction of 
Keat's Love-Letters', 'The Ballad of Reading Gaol', 'Libertatis Sacra Fames', 
'Roses and Rue', 'To My Wife', 'Portia', 'Theocritus', 'Ave Imperatrix', 'Flower 
of Love', 'Greece', 'The Harlot's House'.

{\b General Comment}.

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born in Dublin, the son of an 
eye-surgeon and a literary hostess and writer (known under the pseudonym 
"Speranza"). After studying at Trinity College, Dublin, Wilde went to Magdalen 
College, Oxford, where he achieved a double first and won the Newdigate prize 
for a poem Ravenna. 

While at Oxford he became notorious for his flamboyant wit, talent, charm and 
aestheticism, and this reputation soon won him a place in London society. 
Bunthorne, the Fleshly Poet in Gilbert and Sullivan's opera Patience was 
widely thought to be a caricature of Wilde (though in fact it was intended as 
a skit of Rosetti) and Wilde seems to have consciously styled himself on this 
figure.

In 1882 Wilde gave a one year lecture tour of America, visiting Paris in 1883 
before returning to New York for the opening of his first play Vera. In 1884 
he married and had two sons, for whom he probably wrote his first book of 
fairy tales, The Happy Prince. The next decade was his most prolific and the 
time when he wrote the plays for which he is best remembered. His writing and 
particularly his plays are epigramatic and witty and Wilde was not afraid to 
shock. 

This period was also haunted by accusations about his personal life, chiefly 
prompted by the Marquess of Queensberry's fierce opposition to the intense 
friendship between Wilde and her son, Lord Alfred. These accusations 
culminated in 1895 in Wilde's imprisonment for homosexual offences.

While in prison, Wilde was declared bankrupt, and after his release he lived 
on the generosity of friends. From prison he wrote a long and bitter letter to 
Lord Alfred, part of which was afterwards published as De Profundis, but after 
his release he wrote nothing but the poem The Ballad of Reading Gaol.