LIFE:

He spends his childhood at 1 Merrion Square in Dublin, in a cultured and unconventional environment. His father was a ophthalmologist of European reputation, while his mother had supported in youth the cause of Irish independence. He studies at Portora Royal School in Enniskillen and at Trinity College where he gains an education grant in Oxford. Alternates his residence between London and Paris making numerous travels in Italy, Greece and North Africa and dedicating himself to an active and fashionable life. In 1895 he is sentenced for homosexuality to two years of hard labour (After this experience he will write The Ballad of Reading Gaol). Felt into poverty and deserted by everybody, when he exits from jail flees to Paris where he dies for abuse of alcoholic.
Although he has not never had large relationships with Ireland, is interesting to notice like he commended the "clever Celtic genius " to embellish the English language: "Nothing is more wonderful or characteristic of the Celtic Genius than the quickness with which his artistic spirit has been adapted to the English language. The Saxon has taken our country and has left us in misery. We have taken him the language and we have gifted it a beauty he didn't know " - O. Wilde cited in the biography of H. Montgomery Hyde.

SUGGESTED WORKS:

The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891
It's one of the most important of his works, manifesto of decadentism and aestheticism.
The painter Hallward has portrayed Dorian Gray, a young person of exceptional beauty. Dorian, eager of pleasures and influenced by the cynical Henry Wotton, abandon himself to depravity, as more without restraint as he knows that the worse escapades won't leave trace on his face: by magic, in fact, he has obtained that his portrait will get old and be lined by his foulnesses. His degradation doesn't have limits: he will even kill Hallward who reproaches him such shame. But the horrible face of his portrait becomes the most cruel accusation act for Dorian, who in a desperate impulse slashes it with a stab. But it's him who falls dead: the portrait's features return to be those of young and pure Dorian, while on the ground lies an old man repugnant and obscene.

Salomé, 1893
His most famous play was written in French and will gain large success also in the musical arrangement by Richard Strauss in 1905.

OTHER WORKS:

Among the other works it is necessary to mention The importance of being Earnest, 1895, Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories, 1891 where you find the amusing story Canterville Ghost, The Happy Prince and Other Tales, 1888, and A House of Pomegranates, 1891 where he narrates Irish folklore and superstitions.

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