Oscar Wilde
16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900
‘Be yourself; everyone else is already taken’
I’ve been a admirer of Oscar Wilde for years. We had a quotes board in my sixth form, and I remember clearly writing several quotes attributed to Wilde on it, throughout the year, the simplicity and the wit of the things that he is credited with saying, influencing how I saw the world.
“Society often forgives the criminal; it never forgives the dreamer.”
His incredible skill as a dramatist, is shown in the fact that his plays are still performed, and that his work has been adapted for film. It wasn’t until I saw Wilde, starring Stephen Fry, that I realised how much about his life I was unaware of.
He seems to have been a man who didn’t often let whatever insecurities he possessed show to others. His self belief was such that he even believed that he could win the libel case which he took out against the father of his lover ‘Bosie’ Douglas. Unfortunately that heightened self belief is what led indirectly to his early death, as he lost the case and was imprisoned for ‘gross indecency’, just because he happened to enjoy having sex with men.
The things that he managed to produce, even over the course of his relatively short life, are remarkable, and still resonate with people, despite the changes in society since Wilde’s lifetime.
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hgolightly1982
I'm a thirty something woman who lives in the north of England. I have been a writer for as long as I can remember, creating stories both written and verbal since childhood. While studying at Edge Hill College, I got several poems published by a small publisher in the USA, and in Europe. I have been part of several writing groups, and done quite a few courses in a attempt to hone my writing skills further. I love reading different genres of fiction, knowing that the best way to develop my own writing, and my vocabulary is by exposing myself to the different ways that other people choose to describe things.
The most recent writing course that I've been part of, run by a published author, included a exercise in which we were challenged to read things that we would never usually even look at.
It inspired me to take up a challenge. Namely to attempt to read at least one book by every author which is stocked in my local library. I soon realised that I was being far too ambitious, especially given the fact that every library rotates their stock too often for me to keep track.
I've decided to instead attempt to read a book every day, starting with a author whose surname begins with A, and ending with a author whose surname begins with Z. It doesn't matter what the topic of the book is, or if it's fiction or non fiction, everything is useful for me at the minute.
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Musings of a thirtysomething woman 