Wilde, Oscar

Oscar Wilde was born in a physician's family in Dublin. His mother had literary interests. Wilde later attended Trinity College, Dublin, and Magdalen College, Oxford. He proved his outstanding talent by winning a poetry competition at the age of twenty-four. As a young man he lived according to the principle that rebellion against all authority was necessary for the development of society, and he supported the rights of women throughout his life. He did a successful tour of America in 1882. In 1884, he married Constance Lloyd and they had two sons together. Wilde was one of Britain's most acclaimed authors in the 1890s. He was known for being amusing and entertaining in company as well as on paper, but his career was short; in 1895 he was charged with and convicted for homosexual behaviour and spent two years in Reading gaol. He left a broken man having been declared bankrupt during his time in prison. He went into voluntary exile and died in Paris.