“You silly Arthur! If you knew anything about...anything, which you don't, you would know that I adore you. Everyone in London knows it except you. It is a public scandal the way I adore you. I have been going about for the last six months telling the whole of society that I adore you. I wonder you consent to have anything to say to me. I have no character left at all. At least, I feel so happy that I am quite sure I have no character left at all.”

Irish author, poet and playwright

Oscar Wilde was an Irish author, poet and playwright of the late 19th century. He became one of London’s most popular and influential dramatists in the early 1890s, and is closely associated with the Aestheticism movement. He is best known for The Picture of Dorian Gray, his epigrams, plays and children’s stories. His writing often combines wit, style and pointed observation, and his reputation is also shaped by his 1895 criminal conviction for gross indecency and for practising homosexual acts.