Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde in 1882.

Oscar Wilde was mainly an author. He was born in 1854 and died in 1900. He lived during the Victorian era.

Presentation

Oscar Wilde was born in October 16, 1854 in Dublin. He was the son of a famous doctor. His mother was a journalist. He was a playwright, a novelist, a poet, an editor, a critical. He was famous because of his wit, flamboyance and affairs with men. He lived during the Victorian era (1837-1901). Constance Lloyd was his wife, and Cyril and Vyvyan his two sons.

Childhood

The death of his 10 year old sister had deeply hurt him.

Studies

He studied in Dublin and after in Oxford, in 1874. During his studies, he distinguished himself in conversation. He became a brilliant fellow of Walter Pater. After his studies, he settled in London, where he wanted to start an Aesthetic career. He stood out by his fashion style. He studied at Trinity College in Dublin and in Magdalen College in Oxford.

Work, books written

His first play in 1881 was a failure. He travelled to the USA where he gave a succession of conferences. Then he came back to England, where he got married in 1884. In 1887, he became a writer at the magazine "the Woman's World".

In 1891, The picture of Dorian Gray was published. He wrote A Woman of no importance which won a considerable prize. After he published a poem called The Sphinx, Oscar Wilde, already famous in Paris and London wrote his two last comedies called An ideal husband and The importance of being earnest.

He became famous but also went into troubles. He was accused of being responsible for the deprivation of the young Lord Alfred Douglas, marquess of Queensberry's son. Then, he was condemned to two years of prison for unnatural practices.

Wilde was broken. He still wrote De Profundis which is a painful self-portrait, then The Ballad of Reading Gaol. In his last days, he was converted to catholiscism that he had discovered in Oxford. He died on 30 November 1900, aged 46, in Paris.

Famous Quotes

• "Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life."
• "Experience is simply the word we give our mistakes."
• "I have the simplest tastes, I'm always satisfied with the best."
• "Everything popular is wrong."
• "The true is rarely pure and never simple."
• "To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune ; to lose both looks like carelessness."

References

• Wilde, Oscar, Il importe d'être constant, Presses Pocket, 1986
• Simple English Wikipedia as on 23/02/2016, Oscar Wilde, https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Wilde

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