Oscar Wilde

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) wis an Erse writer, poet, an prominent aesthete; who, efter writin in different forms throughoot the 1880s, became ane o Lunnon's maist popular playwrichts in the early 1890s. The day he is remembered for his epigrams, plays an the tragedy o his impreesonment an early daith.

Wilde's parents wur successfu Dublin intellectuals, an frae an early age he wis tutored at hame, whaur he showed his intelligence, becomin fluent in French an German. He attendit boardin schuil for sax year, then matriculatit tae varsity at seiventeen years o age. Readin Greats, Wilde proved hissel tae be an ootstandin classicist, first at Dublin, then at Oxford. His intellectual horizons wur broad: he wis deeply interestit in the risin philosophy o aestheticism (led bi twa o his tutors, Walter Pater an John Ruskin) tho he an aa profoondly splored Roman Catholicism an finally convertit on his daithbed.

Efter varsity Wilde moved tae Lunnon, intae fashionable cultural an social circles. As a spokesman for aestheticism, he tried his haund at various literary activities: he published a beuk o poems, lectured Americae an Canadae on the new "Inglis Renaissance in Airt", an returned tae Lunnon tae wirk prolifically as a jurnalist for fower year. Kent for his bitin wit, flamboyant dress, an glitterin conversation, Wilde wis ane o the best kent personalities o his day. At the turn o the 1890s, he refined his ideas aboot the supremacy o airt in a series o dialogues an essays; tho it wis his ae novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, which brocht him maie lastin recognition. The opportunity tae big aesthetic details precisely, combined wi lairger social themes, drew Wilde tae writin drama. He wrote Salome in French in Paris in 1891, but it wis refused a licence. Unperturbed, Wilde produced fower society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him ane o the maist successfu playwrichts o late Victorian Lunnon.

At the heicht o his fame an success—his masterpiece, The Importance of Being Earnest, wis still on stage in Lunnon—Wilde sued his lover's faither for libel. Efter a series o trials, Wilde wis convictit o gross indecency wi ither men an impreesoned for twa year, held tae haurd labour. In preeson he wrote De Profundis, a lang letter which discusses his spiritual journey throu his trials, formin a daurk coonterpoint tae his earlier philosophy o pleasure. Upon his release he left immediately for Fraunce, niver tae return tae Ireland or Breetain. Thare he wrote his last wirk, The Ballad of Reading Gaol, a lang poem commemoratin the hairsh rhythms o preeson life. He dee'd destitute in Paris at the age o fowerty-sax.