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Wilde, Oscar: Oscar Wilde
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Oscar Wilde was born on 16 October 1854 in Dublin. Christened Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wilde, he was the second son of a distinguished Irish Protestant family. His father was an eye surgeon, knighted for his services to medicine in 1864, who ... nurtured an interest in Irish history as a collector of folk tales and customs. His mother, Jane Francesca Elgee (pseudonym “Speranza”), was a poet of the revolutionary “Young Irelanders” in 1848, and, like Oscar, she maintained lifelong support for the campaign for Irish Home Rule. Oscar went to boarding school in 1864, attending Portora Royal School at Enniskillen. From there he returned to Dublin in 1871, reading Classics at Trinity College.
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Jane Wilde, Oscar's mother, who wrote under the pseudonym Speranza, was ... a remarkable person. She was brought up as a Unionist but she became closely associated with the Young Irelanders, Thomas Davis, William Smith O'Brien and Charles Gavan Duffy and she wrote revolutionary poetry for 'The Nation' newspaper. She subsequently became a leading society hostess in Dublin. She was an early champion of women's rights. She was fluent in a number of languages and she translated several poems and books. The Wildes' house at 21 Westland Row attracted some of the leading figures in art, literature, science and medicine - including John Hogan, Samuel Ferguson and William Rowan Hamilton.
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Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was a brilliant author, playwright, and wit. He was born in the middle of the Victorian age—the period of English history during which Queen Victoria reigned, from 1837-1901. During this period in English history, the country was undergoing many radical changes, all of which contributed to the way in which the people who lived during this period lived and thought. In modern times, Victorian society is generally remembered as one that was puritanical, repressive, obsessed with the appearance of respectability, strict discipline and high morals. The quality of earnestness became a typical Victorian value, and was applied to all areas of Victorian life, especially in religion, literature and social conduct. Though somewhat one-sided, the term "Victorian" is ... associated with negative qualities such as narrow-mindedness, double standards, hypocrisy, sexual repression and extreme class-consciousness.
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Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born in Dublin to unconventional parents. His mother, Lady Jane Francesca Wilde (1820-96), was a poet and journalist. Her pen name was Sperenza. According to a story she warded off creditors by reciting Aeschylus. Wilde's father was Sir William Wilde, an Irish antiquarian, gifted writer, and specialist in diseases of the eye and ear, who founded a hospital in Dublin a year before Oscar was born. His work gained for him the honorary appointment of Surgeon Oculist in Ordinary to the Queen.
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Continuously in print since 1948, Collins Complete Works of Oscar Wilde has long been established as the most comprehensive and authoritative single-volume collection of Wilde's writing. It includes his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, as well as his plays, stories, poems, essays, and letters-all in their most authoritative texts. This new illustrated centenary edition ... incorporates recent revisions to the text of his poetic masterpiece, "The Ballad of Reading Gaol," as well as introductions by Merlin Holland (Wilde's grandson), Owen Dudley Edwards, Declan Kiberd, and Terence Brown. Completing this handsome new edition are a comprehensive bibliography and a chronology of Oscar Wilde's life and work.
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Oscar enters the working world ready to make his way. As many new college graduates discover, this is not very easy. He struggles to find paying work, and whether by the Fates or by a lack of options, Wilde decides to become a playwright. To accomplish his goal, he must first become famous. Lady Wilde lends a hand in this matter after she moves to London, and taking a lecture first developed there, Oscar tours America and earns a small measure of success. Through persistence, luck, and the development of his playwriting abilities, some of Oscar's creations go into production.
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Oscar Wilde