Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde Oscar Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright who became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. His wit, flamboyance, and advocacy of aestheticism made him a celebrity, and his works—The Importance of Being Earnest, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and An Ideal Husband—remain staples of theatre and literature. He was imprisoned for two years for "gross indecency" related to his homosexual relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas, an experience that inspired his final major work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol.