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Oscar WildeA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Oscar Wilde was a writer and renowned conversationalist whose wit, humor, and style made him the toast of London society in the late 1800s. Born in Dublin in 1854, Wilde was raised in an upper-class family. His mother’s interest in literature was something she shared with her son as he grew up. As a young man, Wilde studied classics, or classical studies, at Trinity College, Dublin, and Oxford University. By the 1880s, Wilde was living and writing in London. In his lifetime, he published poetry, essays, short stories, and plays, as well as the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. Wilde’s work and flamboyant personality became representative of the Aestheticism movement. Though married and a father to two sons, Wilde’s sexual orientation gained notoriety and ultimately led him to be imprisoned from 1895 to 1897 due to Victorian laws against “gross indecency,” which effectively criminalized gay relationships. He died of meningitis in 1900.
Wilde’s keen intellect and knack for witty banter shine through in much of his work, including “The Decay of Lying.” He adeptly uses rhetorical devices, wordplay, and allusion to make insightful and humorous observations about behavior, art, style, and literature, and these skills are on display in this essay.
By Oscar Wilde
An Ideal Husband
Oscar Wilde
A Woman of No Importance
Oscar Wilde
De Profundis
Oscar Wilde
Lady Windermere's Fan
Oscar Wilde
Lord Arthur Savile's Crime
Oscar Wilde
Salome
Oscar Wilde
The Ballad Of Reading Gaol
Oscar Wilde
The Canterville Ghost
Oscar Wilde
The Importance of Being Earnest
Oscar Wilde
The Nightingale and the Rose
Oscar Wilde
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Oscar Wilde
The Selfish Giant
Oscar Wilde
The Soul of Man Under Socialism
Oscar Wilde