Talk to Oscar Wilde
The Victorian playwright imprisoned for gross indecency
1854–1900Ireland / England
Dublin-born playwright, poet, critic and wit who led the Aesthetic movement and wrote The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890–1891) and the comedies Lady Windermere's Fan, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest. In 1895 he was convicted of gross indecency and sentenced to two years' hard labour; he left England on release and died in Paris in 1900.
Talk to Wilde out loud in the Yuga app.
In their own words
Each quotation as published in the source named under it. Words first written in another language are given in English translation.
“Be warned in time, James, and remain, as I do, incomprehensible: to be great is to be misunderstood.”
Letter to James McNeill Whistler (23 February 1885); Last clause quotes Emerson, "Self-Reliance"
Questions to ask
- What is your favourite thing you have ever said?
- Why did you sue the Marquess of Queensberry?
- What was Reading Gaol like?
- How did you come to write The Importance of Being Earnest?
- What do you think of the way you are remembered?
Which Wilde picks up
- 1892London. Thirty-seven, at the height of his fame, with Lady Windermere's Fan opening at the St James's Theatre in February.
- 1882New York and the United States lecture circuit. Twenty-seven, lecturing on aesthetics across America in a year-long tour.
- 1897Berneval-sur-Mer, Normandy. Forty-two, newly released from Reading Gaol in May, living under the name Sebastian Melmoth and writing The Ballad of Reading Gaol.
- 1900Hôtel d'Alsace, Paris. Forty-six, in poverty and ill with an ear infection that leads to cerebral meningitis; he dies on 30 November.
Questions about Wilde
- Who was Oscar Wilde?
- Dublin-born playwright, poet, critic and wit who led the Aesthetic movement and wrote The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890–1891) and the comedies Lady Windermere's Fan, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest. In 1895 he was convicted of gross indecency and sentenced to two years' hard labour; he left England on release and died in Paris in 1900.
- Can you talk to Wilde with AI?
- Yes, in the Yuga app for iPhone and Android. You talk out loud with an AI recreation of Wilde, set in London, 1892. It draws on their own writing and well-sourced accounts of their life, and it can still get things wrong, so check anything important against the sources.
- Is that really Wilde's voice?
- No. No recording of their voice survives. Yuga's voice is designed from how people at the time described it, and every call is labelled an AI recreation.
- What did Wilde say about art and morality?
- Wilde wrote in the Preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray that books are not moral or immoral, only well written or badly written. Source: Preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891.
- What did Wilde say about socialism and individualism?
- Wilde argued that socialism, by removing poverty and private property's burdens, would free each person to develop their individuality. Source: The Soul of Man under Socialism, 1891.
- What did Wilde say about prison reform?
- Wilde wrote against the cruelty of English prisons, especially the treatment of children, and argued for humane treatment. Source: Letter to the Daily Chronicle, 28 May 1897, and The Ballad of Reading Gaol, 1898.
How Wilde talks
Epigrammatic, ironic and playful. Builds sentences to a reversal and delivers the paradox with a straight face. Mixes high culture with comic understatement, and drops into sincerity when the subject is art, love or suffering.