Oscar Wilde


I am not young enough to know everything.

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde, was born October 16, 1854 in Dublin Ireland. His father was a doctor (nothing less than the Surgeon-Oculist to the Queen),  an archaeologist and an author of travel, history and biographies, but it was his father's interest in Irish folklore that attracted his mother to him. Speranza, as Lady Wilde signed her spirited poetry assured Oscar's literary success at an early age by surrounding him with artists and writers at the exquisite salons in their home. The seed of his genius for culture and wit took root in Dublin's Westland Row.
His classical education at Oxford University was officially conferred in 1878, along with the Newdigate Prize for his poem Ravenna.  It wasn't long before he had all of London at his heals: 21st century media could hardly compare with the way he nimbly attracted crowds to his lectures and became the embodiment of  the Aesthetic Movement.
In 1882 he was invited to deliver a series of lectures over a 10-month period in Canada and the US. Shortly after his return to England he arranged a lecture tour of Great Britain and Ireland and then married the lovely, Constance Lloyd. Not long after this, he was besotted by Lord Alfred Douglas (Bosie) who had already read The Picture of Dorian Gray fourteen times before he ever laid eyes on him.  Those who go beneath the surface do so at their own peril
When The Importance of Being Earnest was first performed in 1895 his fame and celebrity were at their height, but it was not to last. Within a couple of months he was charged with gross indecency and sentenced to two horrendous years in prison. His health, his wealth and his friends abandoned him and the last years of his life were spent in small towns in France until he succumbed to the infection in my ear that had taken hold during those inhuman years in prison. Oscar Wilde's wit was silenced in 1900
His works were banned for some ten years following his death, but by the 1920's his plays filled the theatres again and soon his works once again dominated the literary world.

You can learn more about him in this A&E Biography which is divided into seven parts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6 and Part 7.

Student Prezi   Oscar Wilde


Be yourself; everyone else is taken.
1952 Version (with Michael Redgrave)

1985 TV Episode (with Wendy Hiller as Lady Bracknell)
Part 1  Part 2  Part 3  Part 4  Part 5  Part 6  Part 7  Part 8  Part 9  Part 10  Part 11

1986 Version:
Part 1  Part 2  Part 3  Part 4  Part 5 Part 6  Part 7  Part 8  Part 9  Part 10  Part 11

2002 Version (Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Frances O'Connor, Reese Witherspoon, Judi Dench)
Part 1  Part 2  Part 3  Part 4  Part 5  Part 6  Part 7  Part 8  Part 9  Part 10

Excerpts from Live Production (South Coast Repertory)