Oscar Fingal Oamp39Flahertie Wills Wilde 16 October 1854 ampndash 30 November 1900 was an Irish poet and playwright After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s he became one of Londonamp39s most popular playwrights in the early 1890s He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray and the circumstances of his criminal conviction for ampquotgross indecencyampquot imprisonment and early death at age 46Wildeamp39s parents were successful AngloIrish intellectuals in Dublin Their son became fluent in French and German early in life At university Wilde read Greats he proved himself to be an outstanding classicist first at Trinity College Dublin then at Oxford He became known for his involvement in the rising philosophy of aestheticism led by two of his tutors Walter Pater and John Ruskin After university Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circlesAs a spokesman for aestheticism he tried his hand at various literary activities he published a book of poems lectured in the United States and Canada on the new ampquotEnglish Renaissance in Artampquot and interior decoration and then returned to London where he worked prolifically as a journalist Known for his biting wit flamboyant dress and glittering conversational skill Wilde became one of the bestknown personalities of his day At the turn of the 1890s he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays and incorporated themes of...
