![]() ![]() #1 The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) Get a tea and scone and sit down to some British comedy at its best: He is one of England’s best playwrights and we recommend all actors to read more of his work. His work is face paced, and quintessentially English. In 1995, Wilde’s place in literary history was honoured with a commemoration in Poets’ Corner at Westminster Abbey: alongside greats like the Brontë sisters, Charles Dickens and Lord Byron. Wilde’s quietly subversive works-the ones that delighted the upper and middle classes of England-also lampooned their decadent society this satire is no less relevant today. Wilde’s final years were lived in exile in France he died of illness and in poverty at the turn of the century.Īnd yet, his popularity remains, and grows stronger. ![]() ![]() Oscar Wilde’s public and humiliating downfall is an early example of a celebrity trial the public who loved him for his flamboyance and eccentricities were just as eager to see him punished for them. Wilde was imprisoned for three years, and was only pardoned in 2017 with the passing of the ‘Alan Turing Law’. Due to overwhelming evidence and financial ruin, Wilde dropped his case, but was then prosecuted by the Crown for gross indecency. In 1895, at the height of his popularity and fame, Wilde proceeded to sue the Marquess of Queensberry for libel, after the Marquess had accused Wilde of a homosexual relationship with his son Lord Alfred Douglas. Unfortunately, Wilde’s legacy is forever tied to his criminal prosecution. In this period, he debut The Happy Prince and Other Stories (1891), The Picture of Dorian Gray (his only novel, 1890), the plays Lady Windermere’s Fan (1893), A Woman of No Importance (1893) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). However, in the late 1880s and early 1890s, Wilde’s work flourished and earned him the respect and adoration of the public. In 1882, he toured to America to lecture, where he was met with acclaim-but also ridicule due to his Irish heritage. Throughout the 1880s, Wilde lectured in aestheticism and wrote poetry, becoming a fixture in the London scene. He transferred to Oxford, where his poetry first gained significant notice, and he began to craft the ‘Oscar Wilde image’ we best know: flamboyant clothing and mannerisms that openly defied the masculine ideals of the time. Wilde eventually schooled at Trinity College Dublin, where he studied classics and aestheticism. Wilde was born 1852 into a comfortable family of artists and academics his early brilliance is well recorded, as was his family’s efforts to educate their children and instil them with a love of poetry and literature. His most famous play and the uncontested number one on this list, The Important of being Earnest is a fantastic farcical comedy that simply must be read by any actor, playwright or decent human being. He wrote a number of great plays as well as essays, poetry and novels. He studied at Trinity College Dublin and Oxford, and was a keen classicist. Oscar Wilde (1854 – 1900) was a flamboyant and vivacious Irish playwright of the 19th century. ![]()
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