Dorian Gray.
Born in Dublin
Shared with the World

Dublin is a city of writers, poets and playwrights. Their words have provoked wonder and shock, praise and criticism. The works by Dublin’s literary greats have also stood the test of time, becoming some of the most famous poems, plays and novels in the English language. No author has been more thought-provoking and legendary than Oscar Wilde. Although Wilde would rarely return to Dublin after 1878 when his childhood sweetheart married writer Bram Stoker, the city remains forever linked with him.

Much of Oscar Wilde’s fame has come from his plays, including the tragedy Salomé and his masterpiece The Importance of Being Ernest. A comedic play, The Importance of Being Ernest challenged Victorian traditions and remains one of Wilde’s most enduring works.

Born in 1854, Wilde’s childhood home at 21 Westland Row in Dublin is now the Oscar Wilde Centre. The Centre is now home to emerging writers and students of literature, continuing Dublin’s legacy of fostering innovative writers at the cutting edge of the literary world. It also forms part of Trinity College, Dublin, where the famous writer and playwright studied.

Oscar Wilde stirred controversy with The Picture of Dorian Gray, his only published novel. The story follows the titular character, the subject of a painting that ages for every indulgence and sin Gray commits. Meanwhile, Gray remains beautiful and youthful. First appearing in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine in 1890, the novel tackled decadence and beauty. It was also heavily censored for delving into decadent themes what were deemed immoral in Victorian times. Still read around the world, the novel has also been adapted for dozens of television programmes and films.