Parliament, it seemed, was especially keen to represent the people. Under the reign of Queen Victoria in the nineteenth century, England underwent its final transitions to a constitutional monarchy-a system where the monarchy operates under mandates set forth by a constitution. His sole novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, though lambasted as profane and poorly written by critics in his time, has been greatly redeemed, and his magnum opus, the play, The Importance of Being Earnest, continues to enjoy revivals.Īlthough the British empire was continuing to amass power worldwide, the traditional power of the monarchy in England was continually lessening at the same time that the power of the parliamentary government (which was democratically elected) grew. Today, Wilde is remembered for his legendary wit and the kind of pithy rejoinders found throughout The Canterville Ghost.

His health declined steadily, and he died just three years after being released from prison, while exiled in Paris. Wilde’s time in prison was at odds with his previous, posh life, and he did not fare well there. He was sentenced to two years of hard labor.

In 1895, however, he was tried and found guilty by the state of having committed sodomy-homosexuality was, at the time, criminal. Throughout his life, Wilde held careers as a magazine editor, a journalist, an essayist, a dramatist, and a novelist. Eventually, he married and fathered two children. This same year, he published his poem, “Ravenna.” For a time, Wilde travelled between Paris, London, and the US delivering lectures, mostly on the subject of aestheticism, and publishing poems and plays. Still, he graduated from Magdalen in 1878 with a bachelor’s degree in classics and very high honors. He consequently developed a reputation for being something of a “bad boy” that would follow him for his entire life. At Magdalen, Wilde’s studies remained classically focused, but his eye was nevertheless caught by the emerging decadent movement and aestheticism. The child of well-off Irish parents, Oscar Wilde studied the classics at Trinity College in Dublin at the age of seventeen and matriculated to Magdalen College, University of Oxford, three years later.

The canterville ghost story