Irish
poet and dramatist whose reputation rests on his
comic masterpieces Lady Windermere's Fan and The
Importance of Being Earnest. Among Wilde's other
best-known works are his only novel The Picture
of Dorian Gray, which deals with very similar
theme as Robert Luis Stevenson's Doctor Jekyll
and Mister Hyde. Wilde's fairy tales are also
very popular - the motifs have been compared to
those of Hans Christian Andersen.
Wilde made his reputation in the theatrical world
between the years 1892 and 1895 with a series
of highly popular plays. Lady Wintermere's Fan
(1892) deals with a blackmailing divorcée driven
to self-sacrifice by maternal love. In A Woman
of No Importance (1893) an illegitimate son is
torn between his father and mother. An Ideal Husband
(1895) deals with blackmail, political corruption
and public and private honour. The Importance
of Being Earnest (1895) concerns two fashionable
young gentlemen and their eventually successful
courtship. "Really, if the lower orders don't
set us a good example, what on earth is the use
of them?" (from The Importance of Being Earnest).
Oscar Wilde:
Author of the following poetry books and novels
:The Picture of Dorian Gray,
Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and other Stories,
Lady Windermer's Fan, De Profundis, The Complete
Works of Oscar Wilde, Aristotle at Afternoon Tea,
The Ballad of Reading Gaol, A Florentine Tragedy,
The Sphinx, The House of Pomegranates, Poems,
plus many other Oscar Wilde novels, stories and
bestsellers.
Further reading:
See also: Oscar Wilde: The Critical Heritage,
ed. by Karl Beckson (1970); Oscar Wilde: Art and
Egotism by Rodney Shewan (1977); Oscar Wilde by
Richard Ellman (1987); Oscar Wilde: The Works
of a Conformist Rebel by Norbert Kohl (1989);
Rediscovering Oscar Wilde, ed by C. George Sandulescu
(1993); by Ian Small (1993) - See also: André
Gide, John Keats - Films: Oscar Wilde (1960),
dir. by Gregory Ratoff, starring Robert Morley,
Phyllis Calvert, John Neville, Ralp Richardson.
- The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960), dir. by Ken
Hughes, starring Peter Finch, Yvonne Mitchell,
Lionel Jeffries, Nigel Patrick, James Mason. -
Wilde (1998), dir. by Brian Gilbert, starring
Stephen Fry, Jude Law, Tom Wilkinson, Vanessa
Redgrave, Jennifer Ehle.
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