Literature
Oscar Wilde
Playwright and author of The Picture of Dorian Gray
Born 1854 · Died 1900
Photo: Napoleon Sarony / Adam Cuerden · Public domain
«We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.»
Oscar Wilde wrote the wittiest comedies in the English language and one of its strangest novels, then was imprisoned for two years for his relationship with another man. He died in Paris at forty-six, three years after his release.
Key achievements
- Wrote The Importance of Being Earnest and Dorian Gray
- Took a double first at Oxford, the highest possible result
- Won the Newdigate Prize for his poem Ravenna, 1878
Universities
Oxford, England
Read classics at Magdalen College from 1874 and took a double first, the highest possible result.
Facts
- He won the Newdigate Prize, Oxford's prize for poetry, while still an undergraduate.
- He walked across Ireland and Greece on reading holidays and turned up late to term, which nearly cost him his place.
- The Importance of Being Earnest was playing in the West End to full houses at the moment his trial began.
Photographs
Photographs come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences; the author and licence are shown on each image.