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'''Oscar Wilde''' (1854 – 1900) was an [[Ireland|Irish]] poet, novelist, and writer of short stories. During his day, Wilde was a well known playwright and celebrity, and is still renowned for his wit today. He was convicted of [[homosexuality]] and indecency in 1895 and subsequently imprisoned. Wilde died of [[syphilis]] in 1900.
'''Oscar Wilde''' (1854 – 1900) was an [[Ireland|Irish]] poet, novelist, and writer of short stories. His father was a surgeon and founder of a hospital in Dublin, and his mother was a writer who was active in the early movement for women's rights. Wilde studied at Trinity College Dublin and Magdalen College Oxford, receiving his BA in 1878.
Wilde married Constance Lloyd in 1884, and they had two sons, but the relationship ended in 1893. Wilde then had a romantic relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas, which eventually led to a conviction for [[homosexuality]] and indecency in 1895 for which he was sentenced to two years hard labor. He later wrote ''The Ballad of Reading Gaol'' and ''De Profundis'' about his experiences in prison.
Wilde was a well known playwright and celebrity, and is still renowned for his wit today. Some of his lines in stories such as ''The Picture of Dorian Gray'' are still often quoted:
"There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written."
Other memorable lines from ''The Critic as Artist'' include:
"The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius."
"A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal."
"There is no sin except stupidity."
"...nothing worth knowing can be taught."
Wilde's most frequently-produced play is the high comedy ''The Importance of Being Earnest''. This includes such gems as:
"The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what Fiction means."
"London society is full of women of the very highest birth who have, of their own free choice, remained thirty-five for years."
"The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility!"
Wilde died in 1900, three years after his release from prison. In the past he was thought to have died of syphilis, but more recent studies by Dr Ashley Robins of the University of Cape Town in South Africa report that he died of meningoencephalitis, following a serious ear infection. <ref>http://classiclit.about.com/cs/profileswriters/p/aa_oscarwilde.htm</ref>
Friends who visited him during the last days of his life have reported several versions of his 'dying words', including:
"My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or other of us has got to go."
"I am dying beyond my means."
"I can’t even afford to die."<ref>http://www.findadeath.com/Deceased/w/wilde/oscar_wilde.htm</ref>
As he was dying, he received absolution from a Roman Catholic priest, Father Cuthbert Dunne.
=Works of Oscar Wilde=
==Plays==
* Lady Windermere's Fan
* A Woman of No Importance
* An Ideal Husband
* The Importance of Being Earnest
* Salomé
==Other Works==
* The Canterville Ghost
* The Canterville Ghost
* A House of Pomegranates
* A House of Pomegranates
* The Soul of Man under Socialism
* The Soul of Man under Socialism
* Ballad of Reading Gaol
* De Profundis
* De Profundis
* The Rise of Historical Criticism
* The Rise of Historical Criticism
* The Letters of Oscar Wilde
* The Letters of Oscar Wilde