Oscar Wilde was an irish playwright, novelist, poet and critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest playwright and novelist of the Victorian Era. In his lifetime he wrote nine plays, one novel and numerous poems ans short stories. Wilde also created the philosophical theory "art fort art's sake" wich means that the beauty of a masterpiece is as important as her social theme.
Besides litterary accomplishments he's also famous fort his affairs with men. He was tried and imprisoned for his homesexual relationship (then considered as a crime) with the son of an aristocrat.
Oscal Wilde was born in Dublin on october 16 1854. His mother, Jane Francesca Wilde, was a successful poet and journalist and his father William Wilde was an eye surgeon. He was educated in Trinity College in Dublin, then went in England to study in the Magdalen College of Oxford. It's in Oxford that he became involved in the "art for art's sake" movement and he won as well a price for his poem Ravena.
After he graduated, he moved to Chelsea to establish a litteraty carreer. In 1881 he published his first collection of poems, which received mixed review by critics because of the homoerotic overtones. He married in 1884 to Constance Lloyd, they had to son Cyril and Vyvyan. To support his family, Oscar accepted a job as an editor of the newpaper Woman's World where he worked for two years. In 1888 he published The Happy Prince and Other Tales, fairy-stories written for his two sons. His first and only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, was published in 1891 and received quite a negative responde, maily because of the love triangle between Basil the Painter, Dorian and Harry, the three protagonists. Then he wrote successful playwright such as An ideal Husband (1895) and The importance of being Ernest (1895). In those years he began an affair with Lord Alfred Douglas, nicknamed "Bosie" who became both the love of his life and his downfall.
In April 1895 Oscar is accused of homosexuality. At the court, Oscar's case is unsuccessful and he's arrested and tried for indecency. He was sentenced to two years of prison. When he was finally released in 1897 he wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol, revealing the inhuman prison conditions. He spent the rest of his life in Europe, leaving in cheap hotels. He died of cerebral meningitis on November 30 1900, penninless.
