The Picture of Dorian Gray

Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin on October 16, 1854. He studied at Trinity College, Dublin and Magdalen College, Oxford. He later lived in London and married Constance Lloyd there in 1884. Wilde was a leader of the Aesthetic Movement. His only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, was first published in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine in 1890. He published a revised and expanded edition in 1891 in response to negative reviews that criticized the book's immorality. Wilde became famous through the immense success of his plays, including Lady Windemere's Fan (1892), An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895).

In 1985, after a public scandal involving Wilde's relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas, he was sentenced to two years' hard labor in Reading Gaol for 'gross indecency'. His poem "The Ballad of Reading Gaol" was based on his experiences in prison and was published in 1898. After his release, Wilde never lived in England again and died in Paris on November 30, 1900. He is buried in Pere Lachaise cemetery.