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Oscar Wilde
(1854-1900)

Active: 1876-1898 in Ireland, England, Britain, France, Italy, Continental Europe; USA, North America

(Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde)

By Anne Varty (Royal Holloway University of London)

Indexing Data:

  • Active In: Ireland, England, Britain, France, Italy, Continental Europe; USA, North America
  • Born In: Ireland, Europe
  • Activity: Aphorist, Autobiographer, Children’s Writer, Editor, Essayist, Journalist, Lecturer, Letter Writer, Novelist, Playwright, Story Writer

Life, Works and Times

Reader Actions

Oscar Wilde was born on 16 October 1854 in Dublin. Christened Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wilde, he was the second son of a distinguished Irish Protestant family. His father was an eye surgeon, knighted for his services to medicine in 1864, who also nurtured an interest in Irish history as a collector of folk tales and customs. His mother, Jane Francesca Elgee (pseudonym “Speranza”), was a poet of the revolutionary “Young Irelanders” in 1848, and, like Oscar, she maintained lifelong support for the campaign for Irish Home Rule. Oscar went to boarding school in 1864, attending Portora Royal School at Enniskillen. From there he returned to Dublin in 1871, reading Classics at Trinity College. During his time there he began to develop aesthetic

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First published 25 January 2001

Citation: Varty, Anne. "Oscar Wilde". The Literary Encyclopedia. 25 January 2001.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4718, accessed 9 February 2010.]

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