Oscar Wilde

Wilde, Oscar (Fingal O'Flahertie Wills) b. , Oct. 16, 1854, Dublin, Ire. d. Nov. 30, 1900, Paris, Fr. Irish wit, poet, and dramatist whose reputation grounds on his comic masterpieces Lady Windermere's Fan (1892) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). He was a spokesman for the late 19th-century Aesthetic movement in England, which advocated art for art's sake; and he had to suffer from celebrated civil and criminal suits which involving his homosexuality and caused his ending in imprisonment (1895-97). Wilde …

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