Dublin and the London stage
Wilde was born in Dublin in 1854. His mother Jane published poetry as Speranza; his father William was a surgeon and antiquarian. At Trinity College Dublin and then at Oxford, Wilde studied classics. Lecturing in North America and writing for the London press helped make his public manner familiar before his comedies made him a West End success.
In 1895, while The Importance of Being Earnest was playing in London, his libel action against the Marquess of Queensberry collapsed. Wilde was subsequently convicted of gross indecency for relationships with men and sentenced to two years’ hard labour. His experience in prison informed The Ballad of Reading Gaol. After his release he lived mainly in France and died in Paris in 1900.
A French play pictured in English
Wilde wrote Salomé in French. Aubrey Beardsley’s black-and-white designs accompanied the English edition of 1894, adding a visual wit sometimes at odds with the solemn rhythms of Herod’s court. Other artists in the library interpreted different sides of Wilde. Charles Robinson illustrated The Happy Prince and Other Tales, in which a gilded statue’s costly gifts gradually strip it of the beauty its townspeople prize.
