Oscar Wilde Biography

Oscar Wilde Biography

Full Name: Mr. Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde
Date of Birth: October 16, 1854
Place of Birth: Dublin, Ireland
Died: November 30, 1900
Place of Death: Paris, France
Classification: Artists & Entertainers


The Importance of Being Ernest, he led a life that lived up to his prose. He also published fairy tales, poetry, and his most controversial piece, The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Professional artists in Dublin, Ireland brought up young Oscar. His father, although one of the country’s most renowned surgeons was also a literary genius, publishing works about folklore and archeology. His mother was a poet and scholar of folklore of their country. Wilde attended Trinity College in Dublin and Magdalen College in Oxford, where he won several literary contests. He believed that art should be the central part of one’s life and that fulfillment could only come through it.

With a flamboyant attitude towards life and always upbeat, Oscar Wilde quickly fit in amongst the brightest and most promising literary circles in London. After publishing his own work, called Poems, Oscar Wilde traveled to the United States and Canada to lecture in the 1880s. Upon his return to London, Wilde edited various publications and lectured about life in America to those who wanted to hear his witty comments about decadent life overseas.

In the last decade of his life, Wilde published many more of his works. His fairy tales, entitled Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime, Other Stories, and House of Pomegranates brought him some fame and prestige, as did his controversial essays entitled Intentions. Wilde also had a desire to revamp French drama, which he believed had lost its beauty, whether in comedy or tragedy. However, the release of his play called Salome was boycotted and censored because of its depiction of the lewd passions of biblical persons.

Wilde was able to combine satire, analogy, and hypocrisy into his works, which had now gained a massive public following