Oscar Wilde was an Irish poet, playwright, and novelist, the most famous wit in Victorian London. His plays — The Importance of Being Earnest, An Ideal Husband — are still performed constantly. His only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), scandalised critics and remains one of the great Gothic fables. At the height of his fame he was convicted of "gross indecency" for his relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas, imprisoned for two years, and died in Paris at forty-six, three years after his release.
