Oscar wilde

Oscar Wilde (Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde) was born in Dublin on 16 October 1854 to Sir William Wilde and his wife Jane. Oscar's mother, Lady Jane Francesca Wilde (1820-1896), was asuccessful poet and journalist. She wrote patriotic Irish verse under the pseudonym "Speranza". Oscar's father, Sir William Wilde (1815 - 1876), was a leading ear and eye surgeon, a renowned philanthropist andgifted writer, who wrote books on archaeology and folklore. Oscar had an elder brother, Willie, and a younger sister, Isola Francesca, who died at the early age of 10.

Oscar Wilde waseducated at Portora Royal School, Enniskillen, County Fermanagh (1864-71), Trinity College, Dublin (1871-74) and Magdalen College, Oxford (1874-78). While at Oxford, he became involved in the aestheticmovement and became an advocate for 'Art for Art's Sake' (L'art pour l'art). Whilst at Magdalen, he won the 1878 Newdigate Prize for his poem Ravenna.

After he graduated, he moved to Chelsea, inLondon (1879), to establish a literary career. In 1881, he published his first collection of poetry - 'Poems' that received mixed reviews by critics. He worked as art reviewer (1881), lectured in theUnited States and Canada (1882), and lived in Paris (1883). He also lectured in Britain and Ireland (1883 - 1884). From the mid-1880s he was regular contributor for Pall Mall Gazette and DramaticView.

On May 29, 1884, Oscar married Constance Lloyd (died 1898), daughter of wealthy Queen's Counsel Horace Lloyd. They had two sons, Cyril (1885) and Vyvyan (1886). To support his family, Oscaraccepted a job as the editor of Woman's World magazine, where he worked from 1887-1889. In 1888 he published The Happy Prince and Other Tales, fairy-stories written for his two sons. His first andonly novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, was published in 1891 and recieved quite a negative response. This had much to do with the novel's homoerotic overtones, which caused something of a sensation...