“To love oneself is the beginning of a lifetime romance”.

Today, October 16^th, is the birthday of Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde or just plain old Oscar Wilde for short. He was born in 1854 in Dublin the son of Sir William Wilde, an eminent surgeon and writer, and Jane Elgee, an Irish revolutionary poet.

He was a prodigious playwright, essayist, poet and critic and has the distinction of being quoted probably more than any other literary figure, bar William Shakespeare. In spite of his talents he only wrote one novel, “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, which was also made into a film.

He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin and Magdalen College, Oxford before moving  to London where he quickly made his name in literary circles as a scholar of the new philosophy of aestheticism.

His fame spread and so he crossed the Atlantic to begin a series of lectures for the American literary elite. When asked by US Customs whether or not he had anything to declare he allegedly replied “I have nothing to declare except my genius”! There are no records of the Custom officer’s response!

Although married with two children he was bi-sexual and after a well-publicised homosexual affair and allegations of liaisons with male prostitutes he was convicted of gross indecency and sentenced to two years hard labour. Unsurprisingly, imprisonment proved  a terrible time for Wilde, who wrote “I know not whether Laws be right or whether Laws be wrong. All that we know who lie in gaol is that the wall is strong and that each day is like a year”.

He was released in 1897 and moved to France, never to return to either England or Ireland. He died of meningitis in Paris in November 1900 at the relatively young age of 46 but left a body of work that still has a profound influence on the world of literature to this day.

“Ah don’t say that you agree with me. When people agree with me I always feel that I must be wrong”.