Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde was an Irish poet, playwright and critic, born in Dublin on 16 October 1854. He studied at Trinity College Dublin and then at Oxford, where he became known for his devotion to beauty and the aesthetic movement. Moving to London, he became a celebrated lecturer, conversationalist and public personality, admired for his wit and striking style.

He wrote fairy tales, a single novel, essays, poems and a run of brilliant society comedies for the London stage in the early 1890s. His work combines glittering humour with sharp observations about hypocrisy, class and morality. At the height of his fame he was prosecuted and imprisoned for homosexual acts, then illegal, which ruined his career and health. After his release he lived abroad, mostly in France, and died in Paris on 30 November 1900. His plays are still widely performed, and his epigrams remain among the most quoted in English.