Oscar Wilde 1854 – 1900

Biography

Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin, Ireland, and educated at Trinity College Dublin and Oxford, where he became a leading voice of the Aesthetic Movement, preaching art for art’s sake. He dazzled London society with his wit, his epigrams, and plays including Lady Windermere’s Fan, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband, and The Importance of Being Earnest, alongside his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. At the height of his fame, his relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas led to a libel case against Douglas’s father and then to Wilde’s own prosecution for gross indecency. He served two years of hard labour, emerging broken in health and fortune. He spent his final years in exile in Paris, where he died in 1900. His plays remain in constant revival, and his tomb in Paris has become a shrine for admirers who leave lipstick kisses on its glass barrier.