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He is born

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born at 21 Westland Row,in Dublin, Ireland, the second of three children from Sir William Wilde (knighted doctor, philanthropist) and Jane Wilde (poet).

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Oscar enrolled at Portora

He signed the Roll Book, "Oscar Fingal O'Flehertie Wilde" omitting to write 'Wills', his fourth Christian name and misspelling "O'Flahertie".

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Starts School

Wilde begins his studies at the Portora Royal School in Enniskillen, Ireland. He finishes in 1871 and is awarded the Royal School Scholarship to attend Trinity College in Dublin.

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Starts College

Wilde enrolls at Trinity College in Dublin to study classics. He is an outstanding student, earning the school's top prize in Greek.

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Photo of John Pentland Mahaffy, Oscar Wilde's tutor at Trinity College

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Some achivements
Again, he did particularly well in his classics courses, placing first in his examinations and earning the highest honor the college could bestow on an undergraduate, a Foundation Scholarship.

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Awards
Oscar crowned his successes at Trinity with two final achievements. He won for his scholarship the college's coveted Berkeley Gold Medal for Greek and was awarded a Demyship scholarship to Magdalen College in Oxford.

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Attends Oxford

At Oxford, Wilde also experienced the pleasures of homosexuality, and doesn't goes unnoticed with his flamboyant dress and mannerisms.

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Program from Oscar Wilde's recitation of his Newdigate prize winning poem, Ravenna

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Awards
Wilde was awarded the Newdigate Prize for Poetry for his seven part poem "Ravenna" in his last year at Oxford and earned a double first in "Greats".

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Graduates From Oxford

He received a bachelor's degree with top honors in classical moderations and classics. Then, he moved to London.

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Poems Published

Wilde publishes his first book, a collection of verse entitled Poems, which served as a springboard for his 1882 United States lecture tour. He has established a reputation as a leader in the London aesthetic movement.

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Keller cartoon from the Wasp of San Francisco depicting Oscar Wilde on the occasion of his visit there in 1882

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U.S. Lecture Tour

Wilde, short of funds, embarked, for one year, on a lecture tour of the United States, with over 140 lectures given in 260 days. During his time in America, he meets with Henry Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes and poet Walt Whitman, whom he greatly admires, and produces his first play, Vera, in New York. The play is unpopular.

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First page of Duchess of Padua Manuscript

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'The Duchess of Padua' (beginnings)
Wilde had been commissioned by the American actress Mary Anderson to write a five-act tragedy, which wouldn’t be produced until 1891.

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Manuscript page from The Duchess of Padua

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'The Duchess of Padua' (completed but refused)
The play, 'The Duchess of Padua', was completed and sent off to an American manager who had contracted for it, but it is subsequently refused. In that year, Wilde published the play privately at his own expense.

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Lectures in the U.K.

Wilde does a lecture tour through England.

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Marriage

Wilde marries Constance Lloyd, the wealthy daughter of an English prominent barrister, at the Anglican St. James Church in Sussex Gardens, Paddington, London. The couple settles in the Chelsea neighborhood of the city.

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Constance Lloyd with her son Cyril, 1889.

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First son born

The couple's first child, son Cyril, is born.

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Second son born

The Wildes' second son, Vyvyan, is born.

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Women's World

Wilde is hired to revitalize the failing magazine Lady's World, which he promptly renamed The Woman's World, adding serious articles on parenting, culture, and politics, keeping discussions of fashion and arts.
During his two years there, he turned the magazine around, insisting that the publication "deal not merely with what women wear, but with what they think, and what they feel."

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The Happy Prince and Other Tales

A collection of short stories for children which contains five stories: “The Happy Prince”, “The Nightingale and the Rose”, “The Selfish Giant”, “The Devoted Friend”, and “The Remarkable Rocket”.

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The Decay of Lying

Wilde presents the essay in a Socratic dialogue, with the characters of Vivian and Cyril having a conversation throughout. The conversation, although playful and whimsical, promotes Wilde’s view of Romanticism over Realism.

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July 1890 Edition of Lippincott's Monthly Magazine featuring Wilde's 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'

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The Picture of Dorian Gray (first version)

Wilde’s only full lenght novel, which brought critical scrutiny in his time, but endured to become a classic work of fiction, and an icon in the author’s cannon of literary works. It appeared as the lead story in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine on 20 June 1890, printed as the July 1890 issue of this magazine.

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Basil and Lord Henry survey the portrait of Dorian

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The Picture of Dorian Gray and Preface
After vociferous public responses to the novel and Wilde's moral character on the basis of the book's homoerotic overtones, Oscar completed his revisions, expanding the novel by half again and adding his now famous "Preface."
Wilde later revised this edition, making several alterations, and adding new chapters; the amended version was published by Ward, Lock, and Company in April 1891.

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Cover from the first edition of Wilde's short story collection Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories

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Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories

A collection of short semi-comic mystery stories. It comprises: ″Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime″, ″The Canterville Ghost″, ″The Sphinx Without a Secret″, and ″The Model Millionaire″.

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Intentions

A collection of essays which features a revised version of the previously published “The Decay of Lying”.

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Salomé

A play in French which tells the Biblical story of Salome, but it is not produced because of a law forbidding the depiction of Biblical characters on stage.

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'The Duchess of Padua' Opens in New York
Wilde’s second play wasn’t produced until January 1891, when the distinguished American actor-manager Lawrence Barrett, interested in Wilde's play since 1882, produced it on the 26th of that month in New York and changed the title to 'Guido Ferranti'. This time without acknowledgment of Wilde’s authorship until he intervenes. The run of 26 gives Wilde some satisfaction, but he later pronounces the play unfit for publication.

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Photo of Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas, 1903.

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Oscar Wilde Meets Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas

In the summer of 1891, Oscar met Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas, the third son of the Marquis of Queensberry. Bosie was well acquainted with Oscar's novel “Dorian Gray” and was an undergraduate at Oxford. Wilde and Douglas spent increasing amounts of time together. They soon became lovers and were inseparable until Wilde's arrest four years later. Around this time Wilde also began liaisons with young men in London.

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Jessie Marion King's Illustration of the witch from The Fisherman and his Soul in the 1915 edition of Oscar Wilde's 'A House of Pomegranates'

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The House of Pomegranates

A collection of fairy tales that was published as a second collection for “The Happy Prince and Other Tales”. It comprises “The Young King”, “The Birthday of the Infanta”, “The Fisherman and his Soul”, and “The Star-Child”.

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Lady Windermere’s Fan

A four-act comedy first produced 22 February 1892 at the St James’s Theatre in London, and first published in 1893. Like many of Wilde’s comedies, it bitingly satirizes the morals of Victorian society, particularly marriage.

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A Woman of No Importance

A play which premiered on 19 April 1893 at London’s Haymarket Theatre. Like Wilde’s other society plays, it satirizes English upper class society.

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'The Duchess of Padua' (the text)

A five-act melodramatic tragedy set in Padua and written in blank verse. Its first performance was at the Broadway Theatre in New York under the title “Guido Ferranti” on 26 January 1891.

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The Sphinx

This poem tells of the Sphinx’s thousand weary centuries of history. It is one of the earliest incidences of Wilde alluding to his secret sexual life.

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"You brute! You coward!" from an anonymous artist's illustrations to Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband.

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An Ideal Husband

A comedic stage play which revolves around blackmail and political corruption, and touches on the themes of public and private honour.

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Photograph of the original production of 'The Importance of Being Earnest'

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The Importance of Being Ernest

Wilde's fourth West End play in three years premiered at St. James's Theatre in London. A farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personae to escape burdensome social obligations. Working within the social conventions of late Victorian London, the play’s major themes are the triviality with which it treats such serious institutions as marriage, and the resulting satire of Victorian ways.

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The image is a reproduction of the Marquis of Queensberry's visiting card that he left for Wilde at the Albermarle Club, London, in 1895, and which precipitated

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The Calling Card
Queensberry left Wilde a card inscribed "To Oscar Wilde, posing as a somdomite." with misspelling of the libelous word (a pejorative term for homosexuals). Wilde decides to sue for criminal libel. Queensberry had been stalking him, had threatened his livelihood and now insulted him publicly.

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John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry, 1896

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Oscar Wilde Brings Libel Charges Against the Marquess of Queensberry
The libel trial begins. It soon becomes clear that the trial is more about Wilde's conduct as a gay man than about Queensberry's libel. Lawyers grill Wilde on his work and relationships, and submit his letters to Alfred Douglas as evidence. If Wilde lost, the government would have no choice but to pursue criminal charges for gross indecency.

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The Wilde Trial as recorded in The Illustrated Police News, May 4 1895.

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Oscar Wilde is Prosecuted on Charges of 'Gross Indecency'
The first criminal trial of Oscar Wilde opened at Old Bailey. Wilde and Alfred Taylor, the procurer of young men for Wilde, faced twenty-five counts of gross indecencies and
conspiracy to commit them. Queensberry sent the notes from the libel trial and the evidence about Wilde's interest in boy prostitutes to Scotland Yard.
Douglas then left the country and went to France. Constance Wilde took their sons to Europe and changed their last name. Wilde never gets to see his children again.

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Sir Alfred Wills, Judge in Oscar Wilde's second criminal trial

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Oscar Wilde is Sentenced to Two Years Hard Labor
After over three hours of deliberation, the jury returned its verdict: guilty on all counts except those relating to Edward Shelley.

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Goes to Prison
The day after his libel trial there was a knock at the door of Wilde's hotel room and several officers entered. Oscar bade his friends and supporters farewell and was taken into custody. Homosexuality was a crime back then. He was convicted of gross indecency and sentenced to two years of hard labor. Wilde was sent immediately to jail. He started his prison term serving at Pentonville, continued at Wandsworth, and finished at Reading Gaol

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Cover of the first English-language version of Salome

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'Salome' Premieres in Paris
Rehearsals for the play's debut on the London stage began in 1892, but were halted when the Lord Chamberlain's licensor of plays banned Salomé on the basis that it was illegal to depict Biblical characters on the stage.
Written first in French, Wilde threatened to adopt French citizenship if the British censors refused to allow an English staging. It was refused, but Wilde went ahead with plans to publish the play in French.

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Mother Dies

Wilde's mother dies. His wife Constance visits him in prison in order to break the news. Wilde pays for her funeral but is unable to afford a headstone, and so she is buried in an unmarked grave.

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Oscar Wilde's petition for release from prison

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Release from Jail
Wilde is released from Reading Gaol in poor health. He goes to France, where he spends the rest of his life in exile. Upon his release, Oscar wrote “The Ballad of Reading Gaol,” a response to the agony he experienced in prison.

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De Profundis - A Letter
In its first half Wilde recounts a previous relationship and extravagant lifestyle which eventually led to Wilde’s conviction and imprisonment for gross indecency. In the second half, Wilde charts his spiritual development in prison and identification with Jesus Christ, whom he characterises as a romantic, individualist artist.

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Title page from 'The Ballad of Reading Gaol'. Wilde's name appears on the title page for the first time here.

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The Ballad of Reading Gaol
During his time at Reading Gaol, he witnessed a rare hanging, which inspired him to write the following poem, a meditation on the death penalty and the importance of forgiveness. It was published by Leonard Smithers shortly before Constance's death in 1898 under the name C.3.3., which stood for cell block C, landing 3, cell 3. This ensured that Wilde's name - by then notorious - did not appear on the poem's front cover. He and Bosie reunited briefly, but Oscar mostly spent the last three years of his life wandering Europe, staying with friends and living in cheap hotels.

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Wife Dies

Wilde's wife Constance dies in Italy following spinal surgery at the age of 40. The couple lived apart after the trials but never officially divorced.

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The Tomb of Oscar Wilde in Pere Lachaise Cemetery

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Oscar Wilde Dies

After a deathbed conversion to Catholicism, Oscar Wilde died of cerebral meningitis in Paris at the age of 46. He is buried first in Cimitiere de Bagneaux, but his tomb is later moved to Paris' famed Père Lachaise Cemetery.

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'De Profundis' is published
It was written during Wilde's imprisonment in Reading Gaol. It is a 50,000 word letter to Lord Alfred Douglas, his erstwhile lover. Wilde entrusted the manuscript with the putative title 'Epistola: In Carcere et Vinculis' to the journalist Robert Ross. Ross published the letter in 1905, five years after Wilde’s death, giving it the title “De Profundis” from Psalm 130.