Online biography of oscar wilde wikipedia

Novels and fiction about Wilde's life [ edit ]. Biographical films, television series and stage plays [ edit ]. References [ edit ]. The Continuum Encyclopedia of American Literature. New York: Continuum. Retrieved 15 March In Memoriam, Oscar Wilde. Paris: Editions Mercure De France. L'esprit d'Oscar Wilde. Collection Anglia 4 ed. Paris: G.

OCLC National Book Critics Circle. Archived from the original on 27 April His private correspondence has also been published. Wilde was declared bankrupt to pay legal costs after his conviction for " gross indecency ", and his possessions — including manuscripts, letters, books and presentation volumes of all the major literary figures of his day — were sold by auction.

This has made bibliographical and biographical studies of unpublished work more difficult since they are widely dispersed, some in private ownership. The largest collection of Wilde's letters, manuscripts, and other material relating to his literary circle are housed at the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library. Dates are dates of first performance, which approximate better to the probable date of composition than dates of publication.

Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. He first entered Newgate Prison in London for processing, then was moved to Pentonville Prisonwhere the "hard labour" to which he had been sentenced consisted of many hours of walking a treadmill and picking oakum separating the fibres in scraps of old navy ropes[ ] and where prisoners were allowed to read only the Bible and The Pilgrim's Progress.

A few months later he was moved to Wandsworth Prison in London. Inmates there also followed the regimen of "hard labour, hard fare and a hard bed", which wore harshly on Wilde's delicate health. His right ear drum was ruptured in the fall, an injury that later contributed to his death. Richard B. About five months after Wilde arrived at Reading Gaol, Charles Thomas Wooldridgea trooper in the Royal Horse Guards, was brought to Reading to await his trial for murdering his wife on 29 March ; on 17 June Wooldridge was sentenced to death and returned to Reading for his execution, which took place on Tuesday, 7 July — the first hanging at Reading in 18 years.

Online biography of oscar wilde wikipedia: Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills

Wilde was not, at first, even allowed paper and pen, but Haldane eventually succeeded in allowing access to books and writing materials. Between January and March Wilde wrote a 50,word letter to Douglas. He was not allowed to send it but was permitted to take it with him when released from prison. His estimation of himself was: one who "stood in symbolic online biographies of oscar wilde wikipedia to the art and culture of my age".

The second half of the letter traces Wilde's spiritual journey of redemption and fulfilment through his prison reading. He realised that his ordeal had filled his soul with the fruit of experience, however bitter it tasted at the time. I wanted to eat of the fruit of all the trees in the garden of the world And so, indeed, I went out, and so I lived.

My only mistake was that I confined myself so exclusively to the trees of what seemed to me the sun-lit side of the garden, and shunned the other side for its shadow and its gloom. Wilde was released from prison on 19 May [ ] and sailed that evening for DieppeFrance. On his release, he gave the manuscript to Ross, who may or may not have carried out Wilde's instructions to send a copy to Douglas who later denied having received it.

The letter was partially published in as De Profundis ; its complete and correct publication first occurred in in The Letters of Oscar Wilde. Though Wilde's health had suffered greatly from the harshness and diet of prison, he had a feeling of spiritual renewal. He immediately wrote to the Society of Jesus requesting a six-month Catholic retreat; when the request was denied, Wilde wept.

He spent his last three years impoverished and in exile. His discussion of the dismissal of Warder Martin for giving biscuits to an anaemic child prisoner repeated the themes of the corruption and degeneration of punishment that he had earlier outlined in The Soul of Man under Socialism. Wilde spent mid with Robert Ross in the seaside village of Berneval-le-Grand in northern France, where he wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaolnarrating the execution of Charles Thomas Wooldridgewho murdered his wife in a rage at her infidelity.

It moves from an objective story-telling to symbolic identification with the prisoners. Wilde juxtaposes the executed man and himself with the line "Yet each man kills the thing he loves". He suggested that it be published in Reynolds' Magazine"because it circulates widely among the criminal classes — to which I now belong — for once I will be read by my peers — a new experience for me".

Although Douglas had been the cause of his misfortunes, he and Wilde were reunited in August at Rouen. This meeting was disapproved of by the friends and families of both men. Constance Wilde was already refusing to meet Wilde or allow him to see their sons, though she sent him money — three pounds a week. During the latter part ofWilde and Douglas lived together near Naples for a few months until they were separated by their families under the threat of cutting off all funds.

Pray do what you can" he wrote to his publisher. He wandered the boulevards alone and spent what little money he had on alcohol. Soon Wilde was sufficiently confined to his hotel to joke, on one of his final trips outside, "My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One of us has got to go". Please come". By 25 NovemberWilde had developed meningitisthen called "cerebral meningitis".

Robbie Ross arrived on 29 November, sent for a priest, and Wilde was conditionally baptised into the Catholic Church by Fr Cuthbert Dunne, a Passionist priest from Dublin, [ ] [ ] Fr Dunne recorded the baptism:. As the voiture rolled through the dark streets that wintry night, the sad story of Oscar Wilde was in part repeated to me Robert Ross knelt by the bedside, assisting me as best he could while I administered conditional baptism, and afterwards answering the responses while I gave Extreme Unction to the prostrate man and recited the prayers for the dying.

As the man was in a semi-comatose condition, I did not venture to administer the Holy Viaticum ; still I must add that he could be roused and was roused from this state in my presence. When roused, he gave signs of being inwardly conscious Indeed I was fully satisfied that he understood me when told that I was about to receive him into the Catholic Church and gave him the Last Sacraments And when I repeated close to his ear the Holy Names, the Acts of ContritionFaith, Hope and Charity, with acts of humble resignation to the Will of God, he tried all through to say the words after me.

Wilde died of meningitis on 30 November The modernist angel depicted as a relief on the tomb was originally complete with male genitalia, which were initially censored by French authorities with a golden leaf. The genitals have since been vandalised; their current whereabouts are unknown. InLeon Johnson, a multimedia artist, installed a silver prosthesis to replace them.

The epitaph is a verse from The Ballad of Reading Gaol. And alien tears will fill for him Pity's long-broken urn, For his mourners will be outcast men, And outcasts always mourn. InWilde was among an estimated 50, men who were pardoned for homosexual acts that were no longer considered offences under the Policing and Crime Act homosexuality was decriminalised in England and Wales in The Act implements what is known informally as the Alan Turing law.

Wilde's life has been the subject of numerous biographies since his death. The earliest were memoirs by those who knew him: often they are personal or impressionistic accounts which can be good character sketches but are sometimes factually unreliable. Oscar Wilde and Myselflargely ghost-written by T. Croslandvindictively reacted to Douglas's discovery that De Profundis was addressed to him and defensively tried to distance him from Wilde's scandalous reputation.

Both authors later regretted their work. Of Wilde's other close friends, Robert Sherard ; Robert Rosshis literary executor; and Charles Ricketts variously published biographies, reminiscences or correspondence. Later on, I think everyone will recognise his achievements; his plays and essays will endure. Of course, you may think with others that his personality and conversation were far more wonderful than anything he wrote, so that his written works give only a pale reflection of his power.

Perhaps that is so, and of course, it will be impossible to reproduce what is gone forever. Often speculative in nature, it was widely criticised for its pure conjecture and lack of scholarly rigour. The book incorporates rediscovered letters and other documents and is the most extensively researched biography of Wilde to appear since Parisian literati also produced several biographies and monographs on him.

Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read View source View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Irish poet and playwright — This article is about the Irish poet and playwright. For other uses, see Oscar Wilde disambiguation. Aesthetic movement Decadent movement. Constance Lloyd. Cyril Holland Vyvyan Holland.

Willie Wilde brother Merlin Holland grandson. University education: s. Magdalen College, Oxford. Apprenticeship of an aesthete: s. Left: No. Right: close up of the commemorative blue plaque on the outer wall. In Wilde's time this was No. Prose writing: — Journalism and editorship: — Essays and dialogues.

Online biography of oscar wilde wikipedia: Oscar Wilde was an Irish wit,

The Picture of Dorian Gray. Main article: The Picture of Dorian Gray. Theatrical career: — Main article: Salome play. The Importance of Being Earnest. Main article: The Importance of Being Earnest. De Profundis. Further information: De Profundis letter. The Oscar Wilde Memorial walk in Reading includes gates with cultural references to Wilde the outside wall of the Gaol is to the left.

Final years: — See also: The Ballad of Reading Gaol. Main article: Oscar Wilde's tomb. Main article: Biographies of Oscar Wilde. For a more comprehensive list, see Oscar Wilde bibliography. In any case the Marquess of Queensberry came to believe his sons had been corrupted by older homosexuals or, as he phrased it in a letter in the aftermath of Drumlanrig's death: "Montgomerys, The Snob Queers like Rosebery and certainly Christian Hypocrite like Gladstone and the whole lot of you".

Merlin Holland concludes that "what Queensberry almost certainly wrote was "posing somdomite [ sic ]". When pressed about the lie by Carson, Wilde flippantly replied: "I have no wish to pose as being young. I am thirty-nine or forty. You have my certificate and that settles the matter. InWilde's son Vyvyan Holland published it again, including parts formerly omitted, but relying on a faulty typescript bequeathed to him by Ross.

Ross's typescript had contained several hundred errors, including typist's mistakes, Ross's "improvements" and other inexplicable omissions. He pressed our hands. I then went in search of a priest and with great difficulty found Fr Cuthbert Dunne, of the Passionists, who came with me at once and administered Baptism and Extreme Unction — Oscar could not take the Eucharist ".

The Wildean. JSTOR Retrieved 16 January Retrieved 27 February Feminist Theory. ISSN S2CID Retrieved 16 June Irish Genealogy. Retrieved 21 September Oscar: A Life. London: Head of Zeus. ISBN Retrieved 28 June Jane had also convinced herself that the Elgee name derived from the Italian 'Algiati' — and from this imaginary connection she was happy to make the short leap to claiming kinship with Dante Alighieri in fact the Elgees descended from a long line of Durham labourers.

Literary Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 3 April Retrieved 3 April Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. The Unmasking of Oscar Wilde. Ignatius Press. Archived from the original on 14 May Retrieved 17 October Ann's Church website". Archived from the original on 25 October Retrieved 15 May After a few weeks I baptized these two children, Lady Wilde herself being present on the occasion.

Women's Museum of Ireland. Archived from the original on 18 January The Irish Times. Oscar Wilde: Les mots et les songes: Biographie in French. Croissy-Beaubourg: Aden. Retrieved 26 June Clogher Record. Retrieved 21 December Nineteenth-Century FictionVol. The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 4 June Retrieved 26 August PS Review of Freemasonry.

Archived from the original on 31 July Retrieved 3 August Provo, UT: Ancestry. Retrieved 2 March The Days I Knew. Wilde was born in Ireland in He went to school at Trinity College in Dublin.

Online biography of oscar wilde wikipedia: Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde

Then he went to the Magdalen College part of Oxford University. In London, he worked as a journalist for four years. He was very well known in his time. This was because he dressed well and was very good at conversation. He was also well known because he wrote a novel called The Picture of Dorian Gray. He also wrote plays. He wrote it in French while living in Paris.

No one could perform it in England, because there were characters from the Bible in it. This did not discourage him. He then wrote four comedic plays in the early s. He was one of the most successful playwrights of the time. His masterpiece was the play called The Importance of Being Earnest. When he was very famous, he sued his lover's father for libel lying about someone in print.

There were many trials. In the end, the court sentenced Wilde to two years of work in Reading Gaol jail. The crime was gross indecency sexual contact with other men. After he went to prison, his wife went to Switzerland with their children. She changed their last names to Holland. While he was in prison, he wrote a long letter called De Profundis.

De Profundis was about his experiences during the trials. It was very sad compared to his earlier work.