Oscar Wilde

Born in Dublin in 1854, Oscar Wilde studied at Trinity College Dublin and later at Oxford, where he became closely associated with the Aesthetic movement and its love of beauty, style, and art for art’s sake. He first gained notice as a poet, lecturer, and brilliant public personality before becoming one of the standout literary voices of the late 19th century.

Wilde wrote across genres, but he is especially remembered for his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and for stage comedies such as Lady Windermere’s Fan, An Ideal Husband, and The Importance of Being Earnest. His writing is famous for its elegance, paradoxes, and playful way of exposing vanity, hypocrisy, and the performance of social respectability.

His later years were marked by scandal, imprisonment, and exile, and he died in Paris in 1900. Even so, his reputation endured, and his works are still loved for their humor, style, and surprising emotional depth.