Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was known for brilliant conversation and his trademark green carnation. He wrote plays, lectured on art, and amused society with quips destined to become quotations, all to great fanfare. Of course, ultimately Wilde offended Victorian sensibilities with his homosexuality and was jailed for two years hard labor in 1895. The Ballad of Reading Gaol is one of the few works he produced between his release and his death in 1900.

Kim Colwell