Oscar Wilde: Flamboyance Personified

Oscar Wilde: Flamboyance Personified Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde, born on October 16 in 1854, was not just famous for his long name and writings which were shocking in his Victorian times, he was also known for his fussy attention to his personal appearance and his propensity for the finer things in life, In short, he was a dandy. A dandy is defined is defined as a man who is extraordinarily fussy about his appearance and who seeks out the finer luxuries of life in the exclusive men’s clubs of London. So, although Wilde was born in Ireland to a noble family of Irish intellectuals, he moved to London shortly after graduation from college to seek out the high life in London’s elite men’s clubs. And it was in London where he became famous for his plays, his poetry, and his one and only wildly popular Victorian novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, a book whose main character was also a dandy. Therefore, the critics cited Wilde as being too decadent and immoral in his writings, but since Wilde was of the Aesthetic Movement in art believing in “art for art’s sake” and the amoral nature of art and beauty, and that the mores of the should have no bearing on art for arts sake, But criticism not withstanding his most famous play “The Importance of Being Earnest, a comedy about the follies of the upper classes, was a long running play in London, and Wilde prospered as a writer. However his life took a dark turn when he sued the marquess of Queensbury, who was the father of his male lover Lord Alfred Douglas, for criminal libel. But he lost in court and was himself subsequently convicted of performing homosexual acts and sent to prison for a span of two years, And it was there that Wilde discovered his affinity for Jesus and converted to Catholicism and wrote a lengthy letter about his suffering in prison which wasn’t published until after his death. After his release from prison Wilde moved permanently to France where he lived the rest of his life as an ex-patriot. He could speak fluently in both the French and German languages. He was also an expert in classic, and in addition to his blockbuster plays, his decadence and his famous novel, Wilde was also known for his dry wit as displayed in these famous quotes by him. …………………………………………………………………………………………………. Be yourself, everyone else is taken. I can resist everything except temptation. We are all in the gutter, but some us us are looking at the stars. The truth is rarely pure and never simple. To liveis the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all. I have nothing to declare but my genius. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. Oscar Wilde died at the young age of 46 of meningitis as a complication of aninfection following ear surgery in France, when ironically his own father was an accomplished ear and throat surgeon in Ireland.. He is buried in Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris where his gravestone is regularly decorated with lipstick by his still adoring fans. ,