biography
| name: |
Wilde, Oscar (Fingal O'Flahertie Wills)
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1854–1900)
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| biography:
| Writer, born in Dublin, Ireland, the son of Sir William Wilde. He studied at Trinity College, Dublin, and at Oxford, and established himself among the social and literary circles in London. He was celebrated for his wit and flamboyant manner, and became a leading member of the ‘art for art's sake’ movement. His early work included Poems (1881), the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), and several comic plays, notably Lady Windermere's Fan (1892) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898) and De profundis (1905) reflect two years' hard labour for homosexual practices revealed during his abortive libel action (1895) against the Marquess of Queensberry, who had objected to Wilde's association with his son. He married Constance Lloyd (1858–98) in 1884, and had two sons, Cyril (1885–1915) and Vyvyan (1886–1967) for whom he wrote the classic children's fairy stories The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888). He died an exile in Paris, having adopted the name of Sebastian Melmoth. |
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