Oscar Wilde

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Childhood
Oscar Wilde

was born in Dulin on October 16, 1854.

He had an elder

brother and a younger sister

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Parents
His father was

Lady Jane Wilde

Sir William Wilde

a famous Irish surgeon and his mother was a poetess. In his youth he was very much influenced by his mother, who was a highly educated woman.

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Education
He received a very good education at Trinity College in Dublin and Oxford University.

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At school he was a brilliant pupil and later at Oxford he displayed gifts in art and humanities. The young man received a number of classical prizes and graduated with first-class honours.
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Marriag e Wilde Oscar

married Constance Lloyd in 1884.

The couple had

two sons Cyril and Vyvyan

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Constance died in 1898 Cyril died during World War I

Vyvyan became an author

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Aestheti movement
While at the University, Wilde joined the then young aesthetic movement, which was a protest against hypocrisy in the society.
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The future writer became the most sincere supporter of this movement. Later the aesthetic movement became popular, and Oscar Wilde earned the reputation of being the leader of the movement and an apostle of beauty.

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Writing career
In 1881 he went to America to lecture on the aesthetic movement in England. The next ten years saw the appearance of all his main 4/24/12 works.

His major works

In 1881 he published his Poems

The beautiful fairy tales The Happy Prince and other tales app eared in 1888

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His only novel The Picture of Dorian Gray appeared in 1891

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Action
Published first time in

Lippincotts Monthly Magazine, 1890

Later revied by Wilde Classic gothic horror

and published in 1891 fiction

Dorian Gray is a young man who is a subject of a painting by Basil Hallward. Basil admires Dorians beauty. Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton, who is espousing a new hedonism. Dorian is obsessed with Lord Henrys world view and he espresses a desire to sell his soul, to be sure that the painting Basil had made ages instead of Dorian himself. That way he can stay young 4/24/12 and keep his beauty.

 Oscar Wilde won

his fame as a dramatist. The most significant of his comedies are: Fan

Lady Windermeres A Woman of No

Importance

An Ideal Husband
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Literary works
1878: Ravenna 1881: Poems 1888: The Happy 1892: The House of

Pomegranates

1892: Lady

Windermeres Fan Importance

Prince and Other Tales

1889: The Decay of

1893: A Woman of No 1893: The Duchess of

Lying
1891: The Picture of

Padua
1894: The Sphinx 1895: An Ideal Husband 1895: The Importance

Dorian Gray
1891: Lord Arthur

Saviles Crime and Other Stories

of Being Earnest
1898: The Ballad of
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Impisonment
At the height of his

popularity tragedy struck. His letters

to Lord Alfred Douglas were published and he was accused of homosexuality (it was illegal at that time) and Wilde was put into prison for 4/24/12 two years.

 In prison Oscar

Wilde wrote his powerful poem The Ballad of Reading Gaol

When released

from prison he went to France.

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Death
Oscar Wilde died

in Paris on November 30, 1900 of meningitis and is buried here.

Oscar Wildes tomb in Paris
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A coloured Statue of Oscar Wilde in Dublin (Ireland).

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"A

Conversatio n with Oscar Wilde" a civic monument to Wilde on Adelaide Street, near Trafalgar Square, London 4/24/12

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