The Picture of Dorian Gray

Előszó

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900). Playwright, poet, essayist and wit he is now as famous for his flamboyant lifestyle and idioms as for his plays, poems and fiction. Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born in 1854 in Dublin. His father was the eminent surgeon Sir William Wilde and his mother a literary hostess who was alsó known as a writer under her pen name 'Speranza'. Studying classics first at Trinity College in Dublin before going on to Magdalen College, Oxford, Wilde proved to be a brilliant scholar, winning the Newdigate Prize for his poem 'Ravenna'. While at Oxford his flamboyant appearance and conspicuous espousal of aestheticism - art for art's sake - attracted great attention, much of it hostile. With his talent, wit, charm and instinct for publicity Wilde soon became a familiar name in the literary world, as much for his conversational skills as for his writing. His first collection, Poems, was published in 1881 shortly before he embarked on a one-year lecture tour of North America. Arriving in New York, Wilde is recorded as saying, CI have nothing to declare but my genius' - one of the many idioms attributed to him. After his marriage to Constance Lloyd in 1884 he published several books of stories for children, originally written for his own sons. Lord Arthur Savile's Crime appeared shortly before his only növel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891). After 1890 Wilde had increasing success on stage with his shrewd and sparkling comedies, Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), A Woman of No Importance (1893), An Ideál Husband (1895) anc* his masterpiece, The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). Wilde's last play, Salomé, written in French, was refused a licence in London but was later adapted as an opera by Richárd Strauss. Translated by Wilde's close friend Lord Alfréd Douglas ('Bosie'), it later appeared for publication in England. Douglas's Vissza