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Oscar Wilde


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Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Irish dramatist, poet, and author wrote the darkly sardonic Faustian themed The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891);

In the centre of the room, clamped to an upright easel, stood the full-length portrait of a young man of extraordinary personal beauty, and in front of it, some little distance away, was sitting the artist himself, Basil Hallward, .... "I hate them for it,"cried Hallward. "An artist should create beautiful things, but should put nothing of his own life into them. We live in an age when men treat art as if it were meant to be a form of autobiography. We have lost the abstract sense of beauty. Some day I will show the world what it is; and for that reason the world shall never see my portrait of Dorian Gray."--Ch. 1

Ever the aesthete, Wilde himself was profoundly affected by beauty and lived and dressed flamboyantly compared to the typical Victorian styles and mores of the time. He was often publicly caricatured and the target of much moral outrage in Europe and America. His writings such as Dorian Gray with homoerotic themes also brought much controversy for him but he was part of the ever-growing movement of 'decadents' who advocated pacifism, social reform, and libertarianism. While many vilified him, he was making his mark with style and wit and enjoyed much success with many of his plays. Wilde was lauded by and acquainted with many influential figures of the day including fellow playwright George Bernard Shaw, American poets Walt Whitman and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and English author and social critic John Ruskin. His works have inspired countless fellow authors, have been translated to numerous languages, and have been adapted to the stage and screen many times over. Fiction by Wilde includes The Canterville Ghost (1887), The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888), The Portrait of Mr. W. H. (1889), A House of Pomegranates (1891), Lord Arthur Savile's Crime (1891), and Intentions (essays, 1891). His plays include Vera, or the Nihilists (1880), The Duchess of Padua (1883), Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), A Florentine Tragedy (La Sainte Courtisane 1893), A Woman of No Importance (1893), Salomé (1894), An Ideal Husband (1895), and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895).

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born on 16 October 1854, in Dublin, Ireland, the second of three children born to writer Jane Francesca Agnes née Elgee (1821-1896) and surgeon Sir William Robert Wills Wilde (1815-1876). Wilde's mother was a prominent poet and nationalist; his father a successful ear and eye surgeon and noted philanthropist, knighted in 1864. Oscar had an older brother named William and a younger sister, Isola. After his initial years of schooling at home, in 1871 he entered Trinity College, Dublin, then went on to study the classics at Magdalen College, Oxford, England from 1874-1878. It was here that he came under the influence of writer and critic Walter Pater (1839-1894) and helped found the Aesthetic Movement, "art for art's sake". Wilde excelled in his studies, winning many prizes and awards including Oxford's Newdigate Prize for his poem "Ravenna" (1878);

Adieu! Adieu! yon silver lamp, the moon,
Which turns our midnight into perfect noon,
Doth surely light thy towers, guarding well
Where Dante sleeps, where Byron loved to dwell.

After school Wilde settled in London and continued to write poetry; his first collection simply titled Poems was published in 1881. That same year he set off on a long tour of America and Canada to deliver lectures on aestheticism. He arrived back in Europe in 1883 and while not further lecturing lived in Paris, France. In 1884 Wilde married Constance Mary Lloyd (1858-1898) with whom he would have two sons; Cyril (1885-1915), who was killed during World War I, and Vyvyan (1886-1976), who would become an author, penning his memoir Son of Oscar Wilde (1954) and publishing Oscar Wilde: A Pictorial Biography in 1960. The Wildes settled in Chelsea, London where Oscar continued to write and work for such magazines as the Pall Mall Gazette and became editor of Woman's World in 1887.

In 1891 Wilde met English poet Lord Alfred Douglas "Bosie" (1870-1945), son of John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry (1844-1900). It was the beginning of a tumultuous relationship that would cause many problems for Oscar and eventually lead to his downfall. Alfred had a tempestuous relationship with his father which did not help matters. He disapproved of his son's lifestyle and when he learned of his openly living with Wilde, he set out to defame Wilde. For the opening performance of The Importance of Being Earnest in 1895 at St. James's Theatre in London the Marquess planned to publicly expose and humiliate Wilde. Oscar took legal steps to protect himself against the 'brute' but he ultimately won a case whereby Wilde was charged with "gross indecency" for homosexual acts. The outcome of the sensational trial was a sentence of two years hard labour which Wilde served most of at the Reading Gaol outside of London. After Wilde was imprisoned Constance had her and her sons' last names changed to Holland. Now prisoner C. 3.3, Wilde turned to his pen and wrote many essays, poems, and letters including one to Alfred, "De Profundis" (a heavily edited version was first published in 1905; the complete version in 1962). After his release from prison in May of 1897, Wilde wrote "Ballad of Reading Gaol" (1898) about the injustice of the death penalty and the hanging of Charles Thomas Wooldridge;

Yet each man kills the thing he loves
By each let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword!

Adopting the name Sebastian Melmoth, Wilde went to Paris, penniless, and is said to have reunited with his friend and lover of many years, Canadian journalist Robert Baldwin "Robbie" Ross (1869-1918), who was also executor of Wilde's estate. He took up residence in the Hôtel d'Alsace on rue des Beaux-Arts. On his deathbed, Ross by his side, Wilde was baptised into the Roman Catholic Church and received Extreme Unction. Oscar Wilde died of meningitis on 30 November 1900. He now rests in Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris; Ross' ashes were added to the angel-adorned tomb in 1950.

All trials are trials for one's life, just as all sentences are sentences of death; and three times have I been tried. The first time I left the box to be arrested, the second time to be led back to the house of detention, the third time to pass into a prison for two years. Society, as we have constituted it, will have no place for me, has none to offer; but Nature, whose sweet rains fall on unjust and just alike, will have clefts in the rocks where I may hide, and secret valleys in whose silence I may weep undisturbed. She will hang the night with stars so that I may walk abroad in the darkness without stumbling, and send the wind over my footprints so that none may track me to my hurt: she will cleanse me in great waters, and with bitter herbs make me whole.--"De Profundis"

Biography written by C. D. Merriman for Jalic Inc. Copyright Jalic Inc. 2008. All Rights Reserved.


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Recent Forum Posts on Oscar Wilde

Wilde's use of the word 'profile'

Hello to everyone, I'm translating Wilde's Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young into Spanish and would like to ask your opinion on the sense of the term 'profile' or 'profiles' when he writes for instance: "If the poor only had profiles there would be no difficulty in solving the problem of poverty" or "There is something tragic about the enormous number of young men there are in England at the present moment who start life with perfect profiles, and end by adopting some useful profession". Gracias

Posted By Juan at Sat 9 Jan 2010, 5:53 AM in Wilde, Oscar || 4 Replies

Biography of Oscar Wilde?

I am reading "De Profundis" and am struck. That seems the only word I can conjure. I can't express his suffering; only he. Has one of you read a balanced biography of his life? I fancied him such a sick, perverse, twisted artist after completion of "The Picture of Dorian Gray," but I see now that he's more heart than most men. Words can't express my pity for the shame brought upon his life by a narcissistic brat.

Posted By FoghornBellows at Fri 8 Jan 2010, 7:57 PM in Wilde, Oscar || 11 Replies

Oscar's Essays

Many people seem to judge Oscar on his only novel The Picture of Dorian Gray or on some of his great plays such as "The Importance of Being Earnest" or "A Women of No Importance", this is perhaps understandable. Or maybe some people pick up on his wise witticisms and like him, or dislike him, for the playfulness of his epigrams, this is also perhaps understandable. However, I would ask those who are quick to judge and dismiss Oscar only with these works to read his essays. Read "Pen, Pencil and Poison" read, "The Critic as an Artist" read "The Soul of man Under Socialism" and you will begin to uncover a much deeper thinker indeed. Add to this some biographical study and perhaps a few of his letters and maybe you will begin to piece together just how truly deep an important thinker Wilde was in the realms of art. It is as Stephen Fry said that "Oscar's opinion of art was so high that most people though he was joking", to Oscar art was life. Works such as "Critic as an Artist" contain some of Oscar's most beautiful prose; he practised what he didn't really preach, and as ever made it truly beautiful. http://www.online-literature.com/wilde/1305/

Posted By Neely at Sun 20 Sep 2009, 3:14 PM in Wilde, Oscar || 0 Replies

"Go on the rates"?

Could someone please tell me what "on the rates" is supposed to mean? From From Wilde's "The Soul of Man Under Socialism:" "He should decline to live like that, and should either steal or go on the rates, which is considered by many to be a form of stealing" Thanks!

Posted By raggedtrousered at Sun 20 Sep 2009, 11:32 AM in Wilde, Oscar || 1 Reply

De Profundis

The longest love letter ever written. It quite took my breath away when I read the abbreviated version at the end of a book of complete works. I immediately sought out the full version. It gave so much insight into the man. I found it heartbreaking ultimately. It was real, painful, the words on the biblical story of Jesus as the most perfect of tragedies compelling. I know some believe he was insincere in what he wrote. I am with those who think otherwise. I found it very sad that he was unable to live up to his hopes for himself when he left prison. There is a tremendous story by itself on why he may not have been able to, for personal reasons and for the times in which he lived. Any other devotees of De Profundis? Holly

Posted By ohureo at Fri 11 Sep 2009, 5:20 AM in Wilde, Oscar || 5 Replies

What is Wilde's Best Work?

What do you think is Oscar Wilde's best fictional work? I'm thinking in terms of the best work from a critical perspective, as opposed to purely from a favourite point of view, though I don't suppose it matters either way. I'm only going to include serious contenders so sorry if you think "Vera" is his best work. Obviously it is going to be difficult to compare works written in different forms, but let's not be picky.

Posted By Neely at Mon 29 Jun 2009, 5:40 PM in Wilde, Oscar || 8 Replies

Oscar wilde: The long road

At the start of my travelling-pioneering life, in 1962, the first collection, a monumental edition, of The Letters of Oscar Wilde were published. I was far too busy at the time dealing with 9 subjects in Ontario’s grade 13 curriculum, with my burgeoning erotic inclinations, my incipient bipolar disorder, the nature and direction of the new religio-political commitment I had recently been socialized into over the years 1953 to 19621 and, in October of that same year, a socio-historical event that took our global society as close as it has yet been to a nuclear war.2 –Ron Price: refer to 1the Baha’i Faith and 2 the Cuban Missile Crisis. That edition of his letters went out of print but, when I was working in the Northern Territory of Australia, a new edition became available. I was still too busy and there was so much else going on in my life at that time: work, family, a new Baha’i community, just getting through the day....and so it was that it was not until I retired from full-time, part-time and casual work that I had any idea of your brilliance, Oscar. Your life was inseparable from your work; indeed, until that retirement in my own life, my writing was by far the less important part of my life, too, by far. I became like you, Oscar, my own public relations expert, inventing and reinventing myself, perfecting ads all over the place. I’ve got to hand it to you, dear Oscar, you were a clever dude with those words. You said: I was a problem for which there was no solution; I can resist everything except, of course, temptation; if you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you; and, man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask and he will tell you the truth1-------and on and on you went evolving, as a conscious process of your self-expression and your self-dramatization, discovering the artistic context which best matched your temperament and character, devoting your career to investigating the most elusive subject matter: the self, creating an expressive medium for your findings, for your many voices, many personae and your wide range of tones and masks....Me, too, Oscar, me too on the long, stony and tortuous road. 1 Oscar Wilde Quotes, “The Quotations Page,” www.quotationspage.com. Ron Price 12 June 2009

Posted By Ron Price at Fri 12 Jun 2009, 4:52 AM in Wilde, Oscar || 0 Replies

"Women give to men the very gold of their lives. But ..."

"Women give to men the very gold of their lives. But they invariably want it back in such very small change."(O. Wilde):flare: PLz can you help me with this quote... :bawling:what does it mean? :sick:Does it mean that women don't let men to develop or fulfull their dreams???

Posted By Regina61285 at Mon 9 Mar 2009, 5:41 PM in Wilde, Oscar || 6 Replies

Wilde reading group

From his plays to essays. Anyone interested? Cheers

Posted By subterranean at Sat 28 Feb 2009, 1:09 PM in Wilde, Oscar || 0 Replies

Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing

It's a beautiful and true to life quote. I love Oscar's imagination and wit. He is amazing. The things that has more value in life has no price, you can't buy happiness. And people don't give the value those things deserve, for example a friend or a family who is always there when you need them or someone that "borrow an ear" to your problems. I'd like to know ur opinion

Posted By Regina61285 at Thu 12 Feb 2009, 7:48 AM in Wilde, Oscar || 3 Replies

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