Oscar Wilde: From success to scandal

By 50Minutes

Keen to learn but short on time? Find out everything you need to know about the life and work of Oscar Wilde in just 50 minutes with this straightforward and engaging guide!

Oscar Wilde was one of the best-known writers of the 19th century, with works such as The Picture of Dorian Gray widely recognised as classics. This self-proclaimed “Professor of Aesthetics” became famous in fashionable London society thanks to his brilliant conversational skills and insightful opinions on art and literature, and found success across a range of genres, including literary criticism, plays and short stories. However, Victorian society was deeply conservative and intolerant in matters of sexuality, and Wilde was imprisoned in 1895 for his relationships with men. He died poor and forgotten three years after his release, but his image has since been restored and he is now celebrated as a key figure of modern literature.

In this book, you will learn about:
• Wilde’s most famous works, including The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Earnest
• The literary movements and earlier writers who influenced his work and ideas
• His personal life, including his relationships with men, which led to him being cast out of fashionable society

ABOUT 50MINUTES.COM | Art & Literature
The Art & Literature series from the 50Minutes collection aims to introduce readers to the figures and movements that have shaped our culture over the centuries. Our guides are written by experts in their field and each feature a full biography, an introduction to the relevant social, political and historical context, and a thorough discussion and analysis of the key works of each artist, writer or movement, making them the ideal starting point for busy readers looking for a quick way to broaden their cultural horizons.

• Language: English
• Publisher: 50Minutes.com
• Release date: Jan 4, 2018
• ISBN: 9782808005241

Book preview

Oscar Wilde

Name: Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde.

Born: 16 October 1854 in Dublin.

Died: 30 November 1900 in Paris.

Context: Victorian London, when dandies and aesthetes flocked to the city’s salons and dominated avant-garde art and literature.

Notable works:

Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime (1887), short story

The Canterville Ghost (1887), short story

The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), novel

Salomé (1894), play

An Ideal Husband (1895), play

The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), play

De Profundis (1897), letter

The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), poem

Few literary figures have captured the public’s imagination as much as the Irish author Oscar Wilde. In the upper-class salons of Victorian England in the late 19th century, this impeccably dressed dandy and self-proclaimed Professor of Aesthetics drew the eyes of everyone around him and dispensed incisive aphorisms on art, morality and beauty. However, this fame-hungry socialite and dazzling conversationalist was less vain than is commonly thought: behind his apparent shallowness, he was a true philosopher and, above all, a brilliant writer.

He was a multifaceted figure and tried his hand at a variety of genres: as an aesthete and a firm believer in art for art’s sake, he had an excellent grasp of the artistic production of his time and proved an insightful critic; as a dandy, he was a demanding poet who sought out the beauty in everything around him; as a storyteller, he gave his fertile, curious imagination free rein in several short stories and a novel; and as a witty conversationalist he excelled as a playwright. Whether he was writing articles, poems, essays, short stories, novels or plays, his intelligence and sophistication shine through on every page. Wilde was many things, but he was never boring: his writing is suffused with humour and erudition, and in spite of its light touch and apparent shallowness and frivolity, it deals with profound and universal themes. What is more, his writing is provocative, and this continues to captivate