The Dublin-born dramatist, essayist, poet and novelist, Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (1854-1900), was as unconventional as he was brilliant. He studied at Trinity College, Dublin and at Magdalen College, Oxford, displaying an outstanding mind, a sharp wit and a contempt for conformity. He became an advocate of the doctrine of art for art's sake and courted controversy with his flamboyant and decadent public image.

Celebrated for his wit and pathos, Wilde today is perhaps best known for his play The Importance of Being Earnest.

His conviction and imprisonment for homosexuality was the beginning of a slow physical decline that eventually brought about his death in 1900. Wilde left behind him a remarkable body of work. This exceptionally charismatic and talented man left an influence on our culture that has been immense.

Author David Pritchard has written a highly readable, frank and sympathetic biography of the cultural and literary legacy of one of the most paradoxical characters, and one of the most brilliant intellects, of the nineteenth century.