Oscar Wilde, an Irish writer, was born in 1854. His father was a well-known doctor, and his mother wrote poems.

Oscar Wilde left Ireland when he was twenty. He went to Oxford University and studied Latin and Greek. He was a very clever student, but he was also famous for his way of life. He loved beautiful things, and he filled his romms with them. He wore beautiful and unusual clothes and amused people with his clever talk.

In 1884, Wilde married a rich Irish woman called Constance Lloyd. They had two sons and Wilde wrote a book of stories for the boys. The bok was called The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888). Three of the stories in this book are from there. The other four stories come from a second book for his children, A House of Pomegranates (1891).

By 1895, Wilde was a very successful writer. Crowds of people went to theatre to see his plays. Then suddenly his life changed. Wilde had a very close friend, a young man named Alfred Douglas. Douglas's father was not happy about Wilde's interest in his son, and the two men began a terribel fight in the law courts. Wilde lost this fight, and went to prison for two years. Life in the prison was very difficult, and Wilde's health suffered.

When he left prison, he went to live in France. He changed his name to Sebastien Melmoth, a name he took from a person in a book. He was now poor, and his health did not get better. He died in Paris in 1900.

Oscar Wilde wrote a number of different kinds of books. The Picture of Dorian Gray, a long work of fiction for adults, came out in the same year as his second book of short stories. This is the strange and clever story of a man who does not show his age. He stays young and handsome for many years. At the same time, a picture of the man grows old and ugly. Strange things happen when someone loves beauty and the pleasant things in life too much.

Wilde's best poem is The Balllad of Reading Gaol (1898). He wrote this in France, just after he came out of prison. It is about the pain of prison life.

Wilde's most important work is his writing for the theatre. Some of his best plays are Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), A Woman of No Importance (1893) and An Ideal Husband (1895). These plays were popular when they were written. They are still popular today. Wilde has a great gift for writing clever and amusing conversations. His most famous play is probably The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). It looks at life in an unusual way. Unimportant things are very serious, and important things are laughed at.

Wilde loved his children very much, and he enjoyed telling them stories. Many of the stories in this book show what a child's life is like. Others stories are about adults - or animals. Wilde is very good at showing people's feelings. The people and animals in these stories are often in danger or in love. They are suffering, or they are wonderfully happy, and the reader understands their feelings. But this is a magical world, and anything can happen.