OSCAR WILDE
Oscar Wilde was a poet, dramatist, novelist, wit and aesthete. Born in Dublin he won a scholarship to Magdalene College, Oxford, where he was influenced by the writings of John Ruskin about the importance of art in life. In the early 1880s when Aestheticism was all the rage Wilde scandalised and delighted London society with his flamboyance and wit. He had the honour of being parodied by Punch and Gilbert & Sullivan.
Most of Wilde's literary output was written in the final decade of his life, including The Picture of Dorian Gray, Lady Windermere's Fan and the Importance of Being Earnest. Following a sensationalist trial in 1895 he was sentenced to two years' hard labour for sodomy. He died in Paris in 1900. His lipstick-adorned tomb stands in Père-Lachaise Cemetery.
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Neil McKenna is a journalist and writer who has written for the Independent, the Observer, the Guardian, the New Statesman and Channel 4. His biography The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde was a critical and a commercial success. His latest book is Fanny & Stella, a tale of cross-dressing centred around a trial that shook Victorian England. |
