He was found guilty of gross indecency with men and sentenced to two years in prison. Wilde responded to the slander by charging the Marquess with libel, an affront punishable by up to two years in prison.ĭifficulty found our friend Wilde when evidence of his "depravity" was unearthed during the Marquess's trial, and he soon found himself the prosecuted rather than the prosecutor. The Marquess of Queensbury was out to discredit Wilde, in an effort to separate him from Lord Alfred Douglas, the Marquess's son and Wilde's lover. In fact, a crime punishable by imprisonment. The great playwright was a attracted to men, rather than women, and that was a very difficult complication at that point in history. While the play was dominating the stage, Wilde managed to find court and disaster at the very height of his success. Wilde started with a biblical play, which was prohibited in England but performed in France, then after several comedic plays, he produced the opus for which he is still revered, The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). Wilde seemed to prevail and emerged from the scuffle determined to inject his ideas into dramatic plays which would also allow him to launch his social commentary. The trouble was that rather than circle the old maypole of moral virtue and good deeds, The Picture of Dorian Gray incorporated decadence, depravity, duplicity, and shallow beauty. He defended himself and his novel and his view of art but did temper some of the writing when the full-length version of the book appeared the following year. The editor of the magazine where it appeared thought it indecent, bordering on obscene for its "moral decadence." He even expunged five hundred words without permission from the author. It was a literary success and society scandal. The Picture of Dorian Gray, published in 1890, was Wilde's only novel. Nobody's life is easy, however, and at the height of his success, Wilde was plucked from his literary throne and imprisoned for two years. He ultimately distinguished himself further as the preeminent playwright of his day. A gifted and prolific writer with a quick wit, Wilde could succeed writing in any form he chose and excelled as a conversationalist, journalist, novelist, short story writer, and essayist.
This Irish author was born at the wrong time, with personal proclivities that were anathema to his time and place. "The difference between journalism and literature is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read." "I am not young enough to know everything." Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (1854 - 1900) a difficult name for a complicated man who led an exhilirating life filled with hope and triumph, yet visited by peril and beset with despair. Pen Name: Oscar Wilde Born: OctoDied: November 30, 1900
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