Oscar Wilde Book summary
Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1854. His father was a renowned ear and eye surgeon, and his mother was an accomplished novelist and poet. The second of three children, Wilde’s younger sister died at age 10, affecting him deeply.
At age 16, Wilde began attending Trinity College in Dublin, where he would meet Reverend J.P.Mahaffy, a professor. Wilde considered Rev. Mahaffy to be his “best teacher,” a man who strongly influenced Wilde. Even after leaving Trinity College, the two traveled together and maintained a friendship. Later, Wilde attended Oxford, eventually earning a Bachelor of Arts Degree.
Wilde published his first work of poetry in 1875, in a school magazine. In 1978, he was awarded the Newdigate Prize for Poetry for a poem recalling his travels to Italy.
Before age 28, he had become an international celebrity and was able to spend a year touring America on the lecture circuit. At age 29, he married Constance Mary Lloyd. Over the next few years, he cemented his reputation as a man of many talents, being recognized not only as a poet, but as an art critic, a journalist, a dramatist, a playwright, and a writer of fiction, even writing fairy tales.
“The Picture of Dorian Gray” is Wilde’s only novel. First published as a novella in a magazine in 1890, it was controversial for its perceived immorality. The following year, it had been expanded and revised for publication in book form. Among the additions was a preface that included the words: “There is no such thing as a moral or immoral book; a book is just written well or written poorly.”
In 1895, he was accused of homosexual sodomy. Over the course of two trials, he was convicted and spent two years in prison. Wilde considered the trials and imprisonment to be the most traumatic events in his life. His wife changed her name, and that of the two children they shared, and the three moved to England, because of his imprisonment. Wilde himself, upon release, changed his name, spending his last three years in Europe. He died penniless, in a hotel in Paris, in 1900, at the age of 46.
