Author Oscar Wilde was one of the most acclaimed playwrights and novelists of the late 19th century and his work continues to be performed around the world today.
He was known for his witty observations on life and society, and his flamboyant style of dress, and a headline grabbing defamation trial that exposed that he was homosexual and lead to his imprisonment.
He was born in 1854 in Dublin. Earlier in his career he wrote poems, a play and other literary endeavors. He later travelled to the USA where he gave lectures on ‘The English Renaissance’ in art. When he returned to London he gave public talks about his travels in the USA.
His only novel The Picture of Dorian Gray was published in 1890 and captured people’s imagination. He then wrote in quick succession four plays which were commentaries on English society.
An Ideal Husband, The Importance of Being Earnest, Lady Windemere’s Fan and A Woman of No Importance have all become regular performed works for over a century.
In 1895 Wilde was found guilty of gross indecency and sentenced to two years imprisonment after a court ruled that he had engaged in homosexual activity.
Wilde had been involved in a civil legal battle with the father of his lover Lord Alfred Douglas, known as Boasie. His father, the Marquess of Queensberry, confronted the pair about their relationship on many occasions, but when he left his calling card at Wilde’s club inscribed “For Oscar Wilde, posing somdomite [sic]”. Wilde decided to take legal action suing for defamation.
The trial became a cause célèbre as details of Wilde’s private life were revealed in court. Queensberry had private detectives unearth details of Wilde’s dealings with sex workers and Wilde withdrew the action. The court declared Queensberry was innocent, and that Wilde was a homosexual.
This lead to Wilde being arrested by police for gross indecency. The resulting trial was reported all over the world and raised the profile of homosexual people dramatically.
Wilde was found guilty with the judge imposing the maximum sentence and declaring he wished he could have add more years. Justice Wills described the sentence as “totally inadequate for a case such as this”, and that the case was “the worst case I have ever tried”.
After two years in prison Wilde was released, he immediately left for France and never returned to England. Wilde died three years later and spent the final years of his life in poverty and exile.
In 2017 he was given a posthumous pardon for his offenses, one of 50,000 British men pardoned under what is known as the Alan Turing law.
Wilde’s life was dramatised in the 1997 film Wilde with Stephen Fry portraying the playwright and Jude Law playing Alfred ‘Bosie’ Douglas. In 2018 Rupert Everett made his directorial debut with the film The Happy Prince where he also played Wilde. The film covers the period of Wilde’s life after he’s released from prison.
His works remain eternally popular, constantly performed around the world. In recent years there have been landmark productions in the West End of The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Earnest.
