An important figure in the literary Decadence movement, a literary movement that challenged Victorian standards at the end of the nineteenth century, Oscar Wilde lived a life that shocked conventional standards and eventually led to the dismissal of much of his work. Born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1854, he was the son of William Wilde (later knighted), a surgeon, and Jane Francesca Elgee, a writer who used the pseudonym Speranza. Wilde attended both Trinity College in Dublin and Oxford University, and later settled in London. Influenced by the English writer, Walter Pater, Wilde embarked on a literary career and published Poems in 1881.

He married Constance Lloyd, a wealthy Dubliner, in 1884, and they had two children, Cyril and Vyvyan Holland. As the editor of Woman's World, Wilde espoused the values of aestheticism and his belief in "life for art's sake." His wardrobe included green carnation buttonholes and velvet...