Talk:Oscar Wilde
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Featured picture scheduled for POTD
editHello! This is to let editors know that File:Oscar Wilde by Napoleon Sarony. Three-quarter-length photograph, seated.jpg, a featured picture used in this article, has been selected as the English Wikipedia's picture of the day (POTD) for October 16, 2024. A preview of the POTD is displayed below and can be edited at Template:POTD/2024-10-16. For the greater benefit of readers, any potential improvements or maintenance that could benefit the quality of this article should be done before its scheduled appearance on the Main Page. (170th birthday) If you have any concerns, please place a message at Wikipedia talk:Picture of the day. Thank you! Adam Cuerden (talk)Has about 8.6% of all FPs. 18:27, 1 December 2023 (UTC)
Oscar Wilde: Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. As a spokesman for aestheticism, he tried his hand at various literary activities: he published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on the new "English Renaissance in Art" and interior decoration, and then returned to London where he worked prolifically as a journalist. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversational skill, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day. At the turn of the 1890s he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into what would be his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). The opportunity to construct aesthetic details precisely, and combine them with larger social themes, drew Wilde to write drama. He wrote Salome (1891) in French while in Paris, but it was refused a licence for England due to an absolute prohibition on the portrayal of Biblical subjects on the English stage. Undiscouraged, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late-Victorian London. At the height of his fame and success, while The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) was still being performed in London, Wilde prosecuted the Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel. The Marquess was the father of Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. The libel trial unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and trial for gross indecency with men. After two more trials he was convicted and sentenced to two years' hard labour, the maximum penalty, and was jailed from 1895 to 1897. During his last year in prison he wrote De Profundis (published posthumously in 1905), a long letter that discusses his spiritual journey through his trials, forming a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure. On his release, he left immediately for France, and never returned to Ireland or Britain. There he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life. Photograph credit: Napoleon Sarony; restored by Adam Cuerden
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O'Fflahertie versus O'Flahertie
editThe sources cited in the notes section of this article, which say that "O'Fflahertie" is the correct spelling, seem to be in the minority when compared to how the vast majority of sources spell the middle name.
I cannot find a free version of the Wildean article cited ("How Did Oscar Wilde Spell His Name?" by Donald Mead, Jan 2020), so I cannot examine the evidence provided by that article myself. I also cannot find a copy of his birth certificate to compare the spelling. Additionally, the Soethby listing ('Confessions of Tastes, Habits and Convictions', authorial manuscript, 1877) even spells the name as O'Flahertie in its item description, although the handwriting within the manuscript does seem to have the O'Fflahertie spelling.
I think this requires further research before the article makes any definitive statements on the definite spelling of his name. Yttrbium (talk) 16:28, 11 December 2023 (UTC)
- @Yttrbium: We did research and discuss this in February & March this year. Old thread is at Talk:Oscar_Wilde/Archive_7#Spelling_of_one_of_Wilde's_middle_names. DuncanHill (talk) 19:59, 11 December 2023 (UTC)