Irish playwright, poet and aesthetic wit of Victorian brilliance and tragic depth
Scintillating paradoxes, flamboyant aestheticism and cutting Victorian social satire distinguish the brilliant oeuvre of Oscar Wilde. Born in Dublin in 1854, Wilde excelled in classical scholarship at Oxford before conquering London society as an apostle of the Aesthetic Movement and the preeminent playwright of his generation. His lone novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, offers a chilling gothic examination of hedonism, art and moral decay, while his theatrical triumph The Importance of Being Earnest remains a pinnacle of English comedy. His prison epistle De Profundis reveals profound spiritual pathos. Readers experiencing Wilde's incomparable wit should start with The Picture of Dorian Gray.
