The Importance of Being Earnest | Author Biography

Oscar (Fingal O'Flahertie Wills) Wilde was born on October 15 (though some sources cite October 16), 1854 (some sources cite 1856), in Dublin, Ireland, where he would spend his youth. His father was a celebrated eye and ear surgeon who was knighted by Queen Victoria for founding a hospital and writing an influential medical textbook. Wilde's mother, Jane Francesca Elgee Wilde, came to be called "Speranza," writing poems, stories, essays, and folklore meant to give hope to advocates of rights for women and Ireland.

Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde

Wilde won prizes in the classics at Portora Royal School in Ulster, and his continued success in classic studies at Dublin's Trinity College won him a scholarship to attend Magdalen College, Oxford, where he earned a B.A. In 1878, the undergraduate Wilde won the Newdigate Prize for his poem "Ravenna."

While at Oxford, the ideas of Walter Pater and John Ruskin shaped Wilde's thinking about art. He became known for flamboyance in dress (his trademark became wearing a green carnation in his lapel), collecting peacock feathers, and blue china; he came to personify the term "Dandy" used to describe men who paid excessive attention to their appearance. He also became a spokesman for Aestheticism, a belief in the supreme importance of "Art for Art's sake," without regard for its practical, ethical, or social purpose. ("The object of Art is not simple truth but complex beauty," Wilde wrote later in his 1889 essay "The Decay of Lying.") Following publication of the first volume of his Poems in 1881, which included "The Harlot's House" and "Impression du Matin," Wilde spent ten months giving 125 lectures throughout the United States. The Aesthetics movement and Wilde were satirized in the magazine Punch and in W. S. Gilbert's Patience (1881).

After the disappointing reception of his first play, Vera, in 1883, Wilde returned to Britain to spend eighteen months lecturing on "Impressions of America." In 1884, he married Constance Lloyd and began working as a reviewer and editor. The Happy Prince and Other Tales, a volume of fairy tales originally written for his sons appeared in 1888, followed two years later by Wilde's novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Success eluded Wilde's second play, The Duchess of Padua (1891), but his subsequent theatrical efforts received increasing acclaim: Lady Windermere's Fan in 1892, A Women of No Importance in 1893, An Ideal Husband in 1895, and, that same year, his greatest theatrical success, The Importance of Being Earnest.

While in Paris, Wilde wrote Salome in French, but the play was refused a license for performance in England, though the 1896 Paris production starred noted actress Sara Bernhardt. An English translation of Salome appeared in 1894 with illustrations by famed illustrator Aubrey Beardsley and the play provided the libretto for Richard Strauss's successful 1905 opera of the same name.

Social criticism of Wilde's openly homosexual behavior (though married with children, he professed a deep passion for young men) led to the end of his career. Wilde's relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas led Douglas's father, the Marquess of Queensberry, to publicly accuse Wilde of sodomy. Encouraged by Lord Alfred, Wilde sued the Marquess for slander, losing his suit when the Marquess offered evidence of Wilde's homosexuality. Wilde refused the advice of friends to flee to the Continent and in subsequent trials was convicted of "public indecency" and sentenced to two years of hard labor. With the scandal, Wilde's plays ceased production.

Two major works written in prison were published following Wilde's release. De Profundus appeared in 1905, offering an apologetic confession of Wilde's conduct, while The Ballad of Reading Gaol, published initially in 1898, indicts England's prison system and tells of his experiences there. Upon his release, Wilde, divorced and bankrupt, adopted the name Sebastian Melmouth and moved to Paris France where he died in 1900.

Wilde's literary reputation enjoyed a considerable resurgence in the years following his death. He is now regarded as one of modern literature's major figures. His skill and diversity within multiple genres has earned him respect as a poet, novelist, essayist, and playwright. His works are still widely studied and his plays enjoy frequent revivals.