- Oscar WILDE (Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde), born in Dublin (Ireland) in 1854 and died in Paris (France) in 1900, is an Irish writer. Born into a Protestant family, a physician father, an anthropologist and historian, and a mother-poet, he studied brilliantly in classical literature, art and philosophy. In 1878, he graduated and decided to settle in London. Already, during his studies, he wrote sonnets and won the university's competition. Similarly, he published his first collection of poems and composed his first tragedy. In 1882 he was in the United States to give a series of lectures on art. Then, he returns to France where he befriends the writers and painters Hugo, Daudet, Pissarro, Degas, Zola and Verlaine. In 1883 he was in Dublin for his marriage to Constance Lloyd. They will have two children. In 1890 and 1891, publication of "The Picture of Dorian Gray" That same year, he returns to Paris where he stays several months, meets André Gide and finishes the writing of "Salome." In 1895, there is a triumph in London of his centerpiece "The Importance of Being Constant." In 1898, following his judicial problems with the British justice, he chose to go into exile in Paris and Naples. During this period until his death in 1900, he used the pseudonym Sebastien Melmoth. - In 1891, Oscar WILDE published his only novel: "THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY." It is a hedonistic work to success. But the English public was divided on the moral question of the novel. Dorian Gray, the hero of the novel, is a young man soaked in his masculine beauty. He leads a depraved life. He says and declares, "How sad I am, I am going to be old, horrible, scary, but this picture will never have a day more than this June day ... If only it could be the opposite! If it was I who was young, and this picture is getting older, to get it, to get it, I would give everything I have Yes, there is nothing in the world that I would refuse to give! I would give my soul to get it! " This wish, pronounced by Dorian Gray in front of his own picture, will be granted. These words will be executed by Basil Hallward, his painter friend. The hero will keep his youth forever. In return, the transformation will be done on his picture. It will age in its place and will be progressively marked by age, vices and crimes. Misinformed about this pact, Dorian Gray is happy and happy about his present life. He makes the most of it, he has access to easy pleasures. It is debauchery and depravity. He thinks only of jouissance, cynicism, and perversion. He has no remorse and can even become criminal. Dorian Gray, with time and age, his face is always full of youth. On the other hand, his picture, protected from all eyes, accumulates the stigmata of his depravity. One evening panicked by his horrible picture, he lacerated it with a dagger. With this gesture, it is his own heart that he pierces. Instantly, his face is transformed into that of the old man, with horrible scars. Instead, his picture returns to its original state of youth and beauty.