Oscar Wilde

Irish writer

Born: October 16, 1854 · Died: November 30, 1900

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Who was Oscar Wilde?

Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet and playwright. At university, he read Greats; he demonstrated himself to be an exceptional classicist, first at Trinity College Dublin, then at Magdalen College, Oxford. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles. Wilde's parents were Anglo-Irish intellectuals in Dublin. In his youth, Wilde became conversant in French and German. He became associated with the emerging philosophy of aestheticism during this time, led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin.

Historical significance

After writing in different literary styles throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular and influential dramatists in London in the early 1890s. He was a key figure in the emerging Aestheticism movement of the late 19th century and is widely regarded as the greatest playwright of the Victorian era. Wilde is best known for his Gothic novel The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), his epigrams, plays and bedtime stories for children, as well as his criminal conviction in 1895 for gross indecency and for practicing homosexual acts.

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MLA

“Oscar Wilde.” thisDay, thisday.info/people/oscar-wilde/. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.

APA

Oscar Wilde. (n.d.). thisDay. Retrieved October 16, 2026, from https://thisday.info/people/oscar-wilde/

Chicago

“Oscar Wilde.” thisDay. Accessed October 16, 2026. https://thisday.info/people/oscar-wilde/.

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