Oscar Wilde
A Biographical and Critical Overview
Given the popularity and high name recognition of Oscar Wilde, attention devoted to his works and commentary on them is surprisingly sparse; and where it exists, the emphasis, I might add, is on primary texts and biography, not his critical writings. But, among the works that do exist are several comprehensive looks at Wilde, among which is Richard Ellman’s authoritative and definitive biography. But even in the face of this formidable text, some very interesting Wildean biographical information comes from a rather early book, Oscar Wilde: A Critical Study, by Arthur Ransome, 1912. Quoting from this work, “Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde was born on 16 October, 1854, at 21 Westland Row, Dublin. His father was William Wilde, knighted when Oscar was ten in 1864, a celebrated oculist, a man of great intellectual activity and uncertain temper, a runner after girls, with a lusty enjoyment of life, and a delight in falling stars and thunderstorms.” (OWCS, p. 26)
Nor was Wilde’s mother ordinary in any sense of the word. She “was a clever woman who, when very young, writing under the name, “Speranza,” in a revolutionary paper, had tried to rouse Irishmen to the storming of Dublin Castle. She read Latin and Greek, but was ready to suffer fools for the sake of social adulation.” (OWCS, p. 26)
