The Nightingale and the Rose

Content Warning: This section references institutionalized anti-gay sentiment—i.e., the criminalization of sexual relationships between men.

Wilde was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1854 to well-educated Anglo-Irish parents. His mother’s salons attracted well-known artists, writers, and intellectuals from across Ireland, exposing Wilde to a broad range of artists and intellectuals at a young age. He began his undergraduate studies at Trinity College Dublin in 1871 before winning a scholarship to study classics at the University of Oxford in 1874. He graduated from Oxford with First Honors in 1878. He then moved to London, where he quickly became known for his wit and flamboyant style. He published a book of poems in 1881 to mixed reviews and became an international celebrity in 1882 when he embarked on a tour of America, lecturing on aestheticism and the arts. He published essays and short stories throughout the 1880s and 1890s but is best known for his 1890 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray and his comedic plays, culminating in the 1895 comedy-of-manners The Importance of Being Earnest. In April 1895, Wilde was convicted of “gross indecency,” the legal term for sexual relations between men, and sentenced to two years’ hard labor in prison.