● Major Writers 4-维多利亚时代的文学：小说家

维多利亚时代的文学：小说家·诗人·戏剧家

I. Novel 小说

1. 狄更斯[Dickens, Charles]

(1812.2.7,英格兰汉普郡朴次茅斯～1870.6.9,肯特占丹附近的盖德山庄)

born Feb. 7, 1812, Portsmouth, Hampshire, Eng.

died June 9, 1870, Gad's Hill, near Chatham, Kent

British novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period.

The defining moment of Dickens's life occurred when he was 12 years old. With his father in debtors' prison, he was withdrawn from school and forced to work in a factory. This deeply affected the sensitive boy. Though he returned to school at 13, his formal education ended at 15. As a young man, he worked as a reporter. His fiction career began with short pieces reprinted as Sketches by “Boz”(1836). He exhibited a great ability to spin a story in an entertaining manner and this quality, combined with the serialization of his comic novel The Pickwick Papers (1837), made him the most popular English author of his time. The serialization of such works as Oliver Twist(1838) and The Old Curiosity Shop(1841) followed. After a trip to America, he wrote A Christmas Carol (1843) in a few weeks. With Dombey and Son (1848), his novels began to express a heightened uneasiness about the evils of Victorian industrial society, which intensified in the semiautobiographical David Copperfield(1850), as well as in Bleak House(1853), Little Dorrit(1857), Great Expectations (1861), and others. A Tale of Two Cities (1859) appeared in the period when he achieved great popularity for his public readings. Dickens's works are characterized by an encyclopaedic knowledge of London, pathos, a vein of the macabre, a pervasive spirit of benevolence and geniality, inexhaustible powers of character creation, an acute ear for characteristic speech, and a highly individual and inventive prose style.

英国小说家，公认为维多利亚时代最伟大的小说家。当他担任伙计的父亲因债务而入狱时，狄更斯被迫辍学到工厂劳动。年轻时从事过记者工作。他的创作生涯始于重印的短篇文集《“博兹”特写集》(1836)。喜剧小说《匹克威克外传》(1837)使他成为当时最受欢迎的英国作家。随后是《奥利佛·特维斯特》(1838)、《尼古拉斯·尼克尔贝》(1839)、《老古玩店》(1841)和《巴纳比·拉奇》(1841)。他到美国旅行后，在数周内写下《圣诞颂歌》(1843)，接着是《马丁·瞿述伟》(1844)。从《董贝父子》(1848)开始，他的小说表现出对维多利亚工业社会罪恶的极度不安，而在半自传作品《大卫·科波菲尔》(1850)和《荒凉山庄》(1853)、《艰难时世》(1854)、《小杜丽》(1857)、《远大前程》(1861)和《我们共同

的朋友》(1865)中变得更为强烈。《双城记》(1859)出现于他极受读者欢迎的时期。《埃德温·德鲁德》(1870)生前没有完成。狄更斯作品的特征是：攻击社会罪恶及不足的设施、对伦敦的全面知晓、悲天悯人、令人毛骨悚然的笔触、仁慈与亲切的心胸、源源不绝的人物创造力、角色特有的说辞、高度个人化及独创的散文风格。

O LIVER T WIST (1838)《奥利佛?特维斯特》

D AVID C OPPERFIELD (1850)《大卫?科波菲尔》

H ARD T IMES (1854)《艰难时世》

G REAT E XPECTATIONS (1861)《远大前程》

A T ALE OF T WO C ITIES (1859)《双城记》

2. 萨克雷[Thackeray, William Makepeace]

(1811.7.18,印度加尔各答～1863.12.24,英格兰伦敦)

born July 18, 1811, Calcutta, India

died Dec. 24, 1863, London, Eng.

English novelist.

He studied law and art but soon became a prolific writer for periodicals, using a variety of pen names. His early writings appear in such volumes as The Book of Snobs (1848), a collection of his articles from Punch; and Miscellanies(1855–57), which includes the historical novel Barry Lyndon (1844). His fame rests chiefly on the novels Vanity Fair(1847–48), a panoramic survey of English manners and human frailties set in the Napoleonic era, and Henry Esmond (1852), set in the early 18th century. Pendennis(1848–50) is a partly fictionalized autobiography. In his time he was regarded as the only possible rival of Charles Dickens for his pictures of contemporary life, but his popularity declined in the 20th century.

英国小说家。曾学习法律和艺术，但不久成为一名多产的期刊作家，并使用过多个笔名。其早期作品出现于《势利人脸谱》(1848，收集他在《笨拙周刊》的文章)及《杂记》(1855～1857)中，其中包括历史小说《巴利·林登的遭遇》(1844)。萨克雷主要依靠其以拿破仑时代英国为背景的小说《浮华世界》(1847～1848)和以18世纪早期为背景的小说《亨利·埃斯蒙德》(1852)而扬名。此外，萨克雷还著有部分自传体小说《彭登尼斯》(1848～1850)。在其生活的那个时代，萨克雷所著的当代小说使其成为最可能与C.狄更斯竞争的小说家，但到了20世纪，他受欢迎的程度开始下降。

V ANITY F AIR (1847–48)

3. 勃朗特家族[Bronte family]

Family of English writers.

The daughters of an Anglican clergyman, they were brought up in Haworth on the Yorkshire moors. Their mother died early. Charlotte Bront? (April 21, 1816–March 31, 1855) attended the Clergy Daughter's School with her sister Emily and subsequently taught school and served as a governess. She and Emily made an unsuccessful attempt to open a school. Her novel Jane Eyre (1847), an immediate success, was a powerful narrative of a woman in conflict with her natural desires and social situation that gave a new truthfulness to Victorian fiction. It was followed by the

novels Shirley (1849) and Villette (1853). In 1854 she married her father's curate, and she died soon after at age 38. Emily (Jane) Bront? (July 30, 1818–Dec. 19, 1848) was perhaps the greatest writer of the three. Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell (1846), published jointly by the sisters (who assumed pseudonyms to avoid the special treatment that they believed reviewers accorded to women), contained 21 of her poems. Many critics believe that her verse alone reveals poetic genius. Her one novel, Wuthering Heights (1847), is a highly imaginative story of passion and hatred set on the Yorkshire moors. Though not a success when published, it later came to be considered one of the finest novels in English. Soon after its publication, her health began to fail, and she died of tuberculosis at 30. Anne Bront? (Jan. 17, 1820–May 28, 1849) contributed 21 poems to Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell; she wrote two novels, Agnes Grey(1847) and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall(1848). Anne died of tuberculosis at 29.

英国作家家族。安立甘宗牧师的女儿们，生长于约克郡的霍沃恩。母亲早逝，夏洛蒂·勃朗特(1816～1855)与妹妹爱米丽就读于牧师女子学校，夏洛蒂后来在该校任教，还曾担任家庭教师。她和爱米丽曾计划办学校但未能如愿。她的小说《简·爱》(1847)，讲了一个与自己的愿望和社会地位发生冲突的女子的故事。这部小说的成功之处是它给予维多利亚时期的小说以新的真实感。后来她又发表了《雪莉》(1849)和《维莱特》(1853)两本小说。1854年嫁给父亲的助理牧师，不久去世，时年38岁。爱米丽·勃朗特(1818～1848)可能是3姐妹中最伟大的作家。3姐妹联合出版的诗集《柯勒、艾利斯及阿克顿·贝尔诗集》(1846)中有21篇是她的作品。许多评论家认为只有爱米丽的诗显示出真正的诗人的天赋。她的小说《呼啸山庄》(1847)以约克郡旷野为背景，描绘激情和仇恨，具有高度的想像力。刚出版时并不被看好，以后才被认为是最佳英语小说之一。小说出版后不久，她的健康开始迅速衰弱，最后死于肺结核，年仅30岁。在诗集《柯勒、艾利斯及阿克顿·贝尔诗集》中有21篇是安妮·勃朗特(1820～1849)的作品，此外，她还写了《艾格尼丝·格雷》(1847)和《怀佛庄的房客》(1848)两部小说。29岁时死于肺结核。

C HARLOTTE B RONTE’S J ANE E YRE (1847)《简?爱》

E MILY B RONT?’S W UTHERING H EIGHTS (1847)《呼啸山庄》

4. 艾略特George Eliot (本次考试不作要求)

原名玛丽·安·克罗斯(Mary Ann Cross)，又名玛丽安·埃文斯(Marian Evans)。

(1819.11.22,英格兰沃里克郡奇韦尔科通～1880.12.22,伦敦)

orig. Mary Ann Evans later Marian Evans

born Nov. 22, 1819, Chilvers Coton, Warwickshire, Eng.

died Dec. 22, 1880, London

British novelist.

Eliot was raised with a strong evangelical piety but broke with religious orthodoxy in her 20s. She worked as a translator, a critic, and a subeditor of the Westminster Review (1851–54). Later she turned to fiction. Adopting a masculine pseudonym to evade prejudice against women novelists, she first brought out Scenes of Clerical Life (1858). This was followed by such classic works as Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861), Romola (1862–63), Felix Holt, the Radical (1866),

and Daniel Deronda(1876). Her masterpiece, Middlemarch(1871–72), provides a thorough study of every class of provincial society. The method of psychological analysis she developed would become characteristic of modern fiction. With the journalist, philosopher, and critic George Henry Lewes (1817–78), a married man, she enjoyed a long and happy, though scandalous, liaison; their Sunday-afternoon salons were a brilliant feature of Victorian life.

英国小说家。自小受宗教影响很深，为虔诚的福音派信仰者。但在20多岁时与宗教断然决裂。她专心从事翻译、评论，1851～1854年担任《威斯敏斯特评论》副总编辑。之后转向写小说，采用男性笔名，避免人们对妇女的偏见。第一部作品是《教区生活场景》(1858)，后来的经典之作包括：《亚当·比德》(1859)、《弗洛斯河上的磨坊》(1860)、《织工马南》(1861)、《罗慕拉》(1862～1863)、《菲利克斯·霍尔特》(1866)和《但尼尔·狄隆达》(1876)。杰作《米德尔马奇》(1871～1872)提供了对地方社会各个阶层的全面研究。她开创了现代小说通常采用的心理分析的创作方法。她与已婚男人G.H.刘易斯(1817～1878；新闻记者、哲学家和评论家)相恋虽然是一个丑闻，但他们共享了一段长期和幸福的时光；他们的周日午后沙龙是维多利亚式生活璀璨的一面。

A DAM

B EDE (1859)

T HE M ILL ON THE F LOSS (1860)

S ILAS M ARNER (1861),

5. 哈代[Hardy, Thomas]

(1840.6.2,英格兰多西特～1928.1.11,多西特多切斯特)

born June 2, 1840, Higher Bockhampton, Dorset, Eng.

died Jan. 11, 1928, Dorchester, Dorset

British novelist and poet.

Son of a country stonemason and builder, he practiced architecture before beginning to write poetry, then prose. Many of his novels, beginning with his second, Under the Greenwood Tree (1872), are set in the imaginary county of Wessex.Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), his first success, was followed by The Return of the Native (1878), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1895), all expressing his stoical pessimism and his sense of the inevitable tragedy of life. Their continuing popularity (many have been filmed) owes much to their richly varied yet accessible style and their combination of romantic plots with convincingly presented characters. Hardy's works were increasingly at odds with Victorian morality, and public indignation at Jude so disgusted him that he wrote no more novels. He returned to poetry with Wessex Poems (1898), Poems of the Past and the Present (1901), and The Dynasts (1910), a huge poetic drama of the Napoleonic Wars.

英国小说家和诗人。乡村石匠和建筑工人之子，在开始写诗和散文以前曾从事建筑工作。从他的第二部小说《绿林荫下》(1872)开始，他的许多小说都是以假想的英国韦塞克斯郡为背景。《远离尘嚣》(1874)是哈代第一部成功之作，其后的《还乡》(1878)、《卡斯特桥市长》(1886)、《林地居民》(1887)、《德伯家的苔丝》(1891)以及《无名的裘德》(1895)，全都表达了作者斯多伊葛式的悲观论及他对生命悲剧不可避免的认识。这些作品持续受到欢迎(大多已被拍成电影)，主要是由于丰富多样但容易理解的风格和它们综合了浪漫的情节和

有说服力的人物。哈代的作品渐渐开始与维多利亚时代的道德观念发生冲突，《无名的裘德》激起的公众的愤怒使得他十分厌恶，从此他不再写小说。后转而写诗，先后出版了《韦塞克斯诗集》(1898)、《今昔诗篇》(1901)和有关拿破仑战争的长篇诗剧《列王》(1910)。N OVEL

F AR FROM THE M ADDIN

G C ROWD (1874)

T HE R ETURN OF THE N ATIVE (1878)

T HE M AYOR OF C ASTERBRIDGE (1886)

T ESS OF THE D'U RBERVILLES (1891)

J UDE THE O BSCURE (1895)

P OETRY

W ESSEX P OEMS (1898)

P OEMS OF THE P AST AND THE P RESENT (1901)

T HE D YNASTS (1910)

II. Poetry 小说

1. 丁尼生[Tennyson, Alfred]

别名丁尼生勋爵(Alfred, Lord Tennyson)。

(1809.8.6,英格兰林肯郡萨默斯比～1892.10.6,萨里奥尔德沃思)

known as Alfred, Lord Tennyson

born Aug. 6, 1809, Somersby, Lincolnshire, Eng.

died Oct. 6, 1892, Aldworth, Surrey

English poet, the leading poet of the Victorian age.

While attending Cambridge University, Tennyson developed a deep friendship with Arthur Hallam. His reputation as a poet increased at Cambridge, and he published Poems, Chiefly Lyrical (1830). Another volume, including The Lotos-Eaters and The Lady of Shalott, was published in 1832 (dated 1833). Hallam's sudden death in 1833 prompted Tennyson to write poems that eventually became part of the vast In Memoriam(1850) and lyrics that later appeared in the brooding Maud (1855), his favourite poem. Poems (1842), including Ulysses, Morte d'Arthur, and Locksley Hall, followed, then The Princess(1847), a long antifeminist fantasia that includes such lyrics as Sweet and Low and Tears, Idle Tears. In 1850 he married; that year he was also named poet laureate of England. Among his subsequent works are The Charge of the Light Brigade (1855); Idylls of the King (1859), treating the Arthurian legend; and Enoch Arden(1864). A consummate poet who was inclined to melancholy, Tennyson was also regarded as a spokesman for the educated English middle class. His works often dealt with the difficulties of an age when traditional assumptions were increasingly called into question by science and modern progress.

英国维多利亚时代最杰出的诗人。被称为丁尼生勋爵。就读于剑桥大学期间，与A.哈勒姆建立了深厚的友谊，1830年发表了抒情诗集。1833年发表另一诗集，其中包括《食荷花人》、《夏洛蒂小姐》等。同年，哈勒姆的不期而亡沉重打击了丁尼生，促使他写成后来收

到《悼念》(1850)里的一些诗篇，以及后来出现在他最喜爱的诗集《莫德》(1855)里的一些抒情诗。接着他又于1842年创作了《诗集》，其中包括《尤利西斯》、《亚瑟王之死》、《洛克斯利堂》，1847年创作了长篇反女性主义的奇幻故事《公主》，其中包括抒情诗《甜美与粗俗》、《泪水，无用的泪水》等。1850年结婚并封为英国桂冠诗人。其后主要作品有《轻骑兵冲锋》(1855)、描述亚瑟王传奇故事的《国王叙事集》(1859)、《伊诺克·阿登》(1864)。丁尼生是一位造诣极高的诗人，有种忧郁诗人气质，还被视为英国中产阶级的代言人。他的作品常常反映科学的进步对当时社会的传统思想所带来的冲击。

P OEMS,C HIEFLY L YRICAL (1830), TWO VOLUMES (INCLUDING T HE L ADY OF S HALOTT)

I N M EMORIAM (1850)

I DYLLS OF THE K ING (1859)

T HE P RINCESS (1847)(INCLUDING T EARS,I DLE T EARS)

2. 布朗宁[Browning, Robert]

(1812.5.7,英格兰伦敦～1889.12.12,意大利威尼斯)

born May 7, 1812, London, Eng.

died Dec. 12, 1889, Venice, Italy

British poet.

His early works include verse dramas, notably Pippa Passes (1841), and long poems, including Sordello (1840). In the years of his marriage (1846–61) to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, spent in Italy, he produced little other than Men and Women(1855), which cont ains dramatic lyrics such as “Love Among the Ruins” and the great monologues “Fra Lippo Lippi” and “Bishop Blougram's Apology.” Dramatis Personae (1864), including “Rabbi Ben Ezra” and “Caliban upon Setebos,” finally won him popular recognition. The Ring and the Book (1868–69), a book-length poem, is based on a 1698 murder trial in Rome. Browning influenced many modern poets through his development of the dramatic monologue (with its emphasis on individual psychology) and through his success in writing about the variety of modern life in language his contemporaries found often difficult as well as original.

英国诗人。早期作品包括一些诗剧，最出名的有《皮帕走过了》(1841)，还有一些长诗，如《索尔戴洛》(1840)。他和女诗人伊丽莎白·巴雷特·布朗宁结婚后，定居意大利(1846～1861)。这个时期除了《男人和女人》(1855)外就几乎没有创作，这部集子里包含了一些戏剧性的抒情诗，如“凋零的爱情”以及长篇独白“利比”和“布罗格兰主教的辩解”。1864年出版的《剧中人》包括了“埃兹拉拉比”和“在塞特珀斯上的卡利班”，使他最终赢得了普遍的认可。长诗《指环和书》(1868～1869)是以1698年发生在罗马的一起谋杀案的审判为基础写成的。他发展出来的戏剧性独白(重点放在刻画人的心理)，以及他用同代人感到难以应用的语言成功地描写当代生活的各个层面，这些都影响了许多当代诗人。

P OETIC C OLLECTIONS

M EN AND W OMEN (1855),

D RAMATIS P ERSONA

E (1864)

A BOOK-LENGTH NARRATIVE POEM

T HE R ING AND THE B OOK (1868–69)

L ITERARY T ERM

Dramatic Monologue

Dramatic Monologue: A literary, usually verse composition in

which a speaker reveals his/her character, often in relation to

a critical situation or event, in a monologue addressed to the

reader or to a presumed listener.

戏剧性独白：一种文学作品，通常为诗体作品，其中一个说话人通过对读者或假想听众说的独

白而展示其与关键情景或事件有关的性格

3. 布朗宁[Browning, Elizabeth Barrett]

原名Elizabeth Barrett。

(1806.3.6,英格兰达勒姆附近～1861.6.29,佛罗伦萨)

orig. Elizabeth Barrett

born March 6, 1806, near Durham, Durham, Eng.

died June 29, 1861, Florence

British poet.

Though she was an invalid who was afraid to meet strangers, her poetry became well known in literary circles with the publication of volumes of verse in 1838 and 1844. She met Robert Browning in 1845 and, after a courtship kept secret from her despotic father, they married and settled in Florence. Her reputation rests chiefly on the love poems written during their courtship, Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850). Her most ambitious work, the blank-verse novel Aurora Leigh(1857), was a huge popular success.

英国女诗人。虽然她是一个怕见生人的病残之人，但是在1838年和1844年发表了诗集后，她的诗在文学界广为人知。1845年认识罗伯特·布朗宁，为了逃避她的专制父亲的耳目，他们秘密地相恋了一段时间后才结婚，婚后在佛罗伦萨定居。她的声誉主要来自恋爱期间所写的爱情诗《葡萄牙十四行诗》(1850)。她最有雄心的作品是无韵诗小说《奥罗拉·利》(1857)，这是她最成功的作品。

S ONNETS FROM THE P ORTUGUESE (1850)

4. 阿诺德[Arnold, Matthew]

(1822.12.24,英格兰米德尔塞克斯～1888.4.15,利物浦)

born Dec. 24, 1822, Laleham, Middlesex, Eng.

died April 15, 1888, Liverpool

English poet and literary and social critic.

Son of the educator Thomas Arnold, he attended Oxford and then worked as an inspector of schools for the rest of his life. His verse includes Dover Beach, his most celebrated work; Sohrab and Rustum, a romantic epic; and The Scholar Gipsy and Thyrsis.Culture and Anarchy (1869), his central work of criticism, is a masterpiece of ridicule as well as a searching analysis of Victorian society. In a later essay, The Study

of Poetry, he argued that, in an age of crumbling creeds, poetry would replace religion and that therefore readers would have to understand how to distinguish the best poetry from the inferior.

英国维多利亚时代优秀诗人、文学与社会评论家。教育家T.阿诺德的儿子，受教于牛津大学，后终生担任督学。他的诗作包括：高度哲理性的《多佛滩》；史诗般的《邵莱布和罗斯托》；完美而壮丽的《吉普赛学者》和《色希斯》。《文化与无政府状态》(1869)是他重要的评论作品，它集中攻击了维多利亚时代英国人的自满、庸俗和拜金主义，社会缺乏准则和方向感，陷于无政府状态。在他后来的短文《诗的研究》中提到，诗可能取代宗教，所以读者要懂得如何去分辨诗的好坏。

D OVER B EACH

C RITICAL W ORK

C ULTURE AN

D A NARCHY (1869)

III. Drama 戏剧

1. 萧伯纳[Shaw, George Bernard]

(1856.7.26,爱尔兰都柏林～1950.11.2,英格兰赫特福德郡阿约特圣劳伦斯)

born July 26, 1856, Dublin, Ire.

died Nov. 2, 1950, Ayot St. Lawrence, Hertfordshire, Eng.

Irish playwright and critic.

After moving to London in 1876, he worked for years as a music and art critic, wrote book and theatre reviews, and was an active member of the socialist Fabian Society. In his first play, Widowers' Houses (1892), he emphasized social and economic issues instead of romance, adopting the ironic comedic tone that would characterize all his work. He described his first plays as“unpleasant” because they forced the spectator to face unpleasant facts; these plays include Mrs. Warren's Profession(1893), which concerns prostitution and was barred from performance until 1902. He then wrote four “pleasant” plays, including the comedies Arms and the Man (1894) and Candida (1895). His next plays include Caesar and Cleopatra (1899) and Man and Superman (1905). He used high comedy to explore society's foibles in Major Barbara (1905), The Doctor's Dilemma (1911), and Pygmalion (1913), his comedic masterpiece. Other notable plays include Androcles and the Lion (1912), Heartbreak House (1919), and Saint Joan (1923). His other writings and speeches made him a controversial public figure for much of his life. He received the Nobel Prize in 1925. 爱尔兰剧作家、评论家。1876年移居伦敦以后做为音乐和艺术评论家多年，并著书和戏剧评论，同时是社会主义费边社活跃的成员。在第一部戏剧《鳏夫的房产》(1892)中，他强调社会经济问题而不是浪漫，采用了他的作品的一贯特点——反讽喜剧的格调。萧伯纳形容他最初几部戏剧为“不愉快的”，因为它们迫使观众面对不愉快的事实。这些“不愉快的戏剧”包括《华伦夫人的职业》(1893)，该剧关注卖淫，1902年前一直被禁止演出。萧伯纳后来又写了四部“愉快”戏剧，包括喜剧《武器与人》(1894)和《康蒂妲》(1895)。接着又写了《凯撒和克

娄巴特拉》(1899)和《人与超人》(1905)等剧。在《巴巴拉少校》(1905)、《医生的窘境》(1911)和他的喜剧杰作《卖花女》(1913)中，他用高雅喜剧来探讨社会的弱点。其他的著名戏剧包括《安德罗克勒斯和狮子》(1912)、《伤心之家》(1919)以及《圣女贞德》(1923)。他的其他作品和言论使他成为一个备受争议的公众人物。1925年获诺贝尔文学奖。

M RS.W ARREN'S P ROFESSION (1893)

M AN AND S UPERMAN (1905)

M AJOR B ARBARA (1905)

P YGMALION (1913),

王尔德[W ILDE,O SCAR]

(1854.10.16,爱尔兰都柏林～1900.11.30,法国巴黎)

born Oct. 16, 1854, Dublin, Ire.

died Nov. 30, 1900, Paris, France

Irish poet and dramatist.

Son of an eminent surgeon, Wilde attended Trinity College, Dublin, and later Oxford University, becoming widely known for his wit while still an undergraduate. A spokesman for Aestheticism, in the early 1880s he gave a lecture tour in the U.S. and established himself in London circles by his wit and flamboyance. His only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), combines gothic elements with mockery of bourgeois morality.

爱尔兰才子、诗人和剧作家。生于一个著名的医生家庭，在都柏林三一学院毕业后去牛津大学深造。在牛津期间，他的长诗《拉凡纳》获文学奖。他是英国唯美主义运动的主要代表，19世纪80年代赴美讲学，宣传他的美学主张。回国后，担任杂志评论员和编辑。他唯一的一部小说《道林·格雷的肖像》(1891)既有哥特式小说超自然力量的因素，又模仿法国颓废派小说对隐私罪恶的描写。

His macabre play Salomé(1893) was later adapted as the libretto of Richard Strauss's opera; his other plays, all successes, include Lady Windermere's Fan(1893), A Woman of No Importance (1893), and An Ideal Husband (1895). His greatest work was the comedy The Importance of Being Earnest (1899), a satire of Victorian social hypocrisy. Two critical dialogues, “The Decay of Lying” and “The Critic as Artist,” are admired as equally brilliant.

剧作《莎乐美》(1893)被理查·施特劳斯改编成歌剧。其他成功的剧作还有《少奶奶的扇子》(1893)、《无足轻重的女人》(1893)、《理想丈夫》(1895)。其最大的文学成就之一是揭露维多利亚时代伪善态度的喜剧杰作《不可儿戏》(1899)。Though happily married, in 1891 he began an intimate relationship with the young Lord Alfred Douglas, son of the marquess of Queensberry. Accused by Queensberry of being a sodomite, Wilde sued for libel and lost, then was arrested for sodomy and convicted in a trial that became internationally notorious. Imprisoned at Reading Gaol (1895–97), he wrote a recriminatory letter to his lover that was edited and published as De Profundis (1905). After his release, he moved to Paris; his only later

work was The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), on inhumane prison conditions. He died suddenly of acute meningitis.

1895年被控和青年道格拉斯搞同性恋，被判入狱服劳役两年。在狱中写了《我心深处》的长信，抱怨道格拉斯对他的引诱。1897年出狱后即去法国，写了长诗《雷丁监狱之歌》(1898)，揭露英国监狱中非人道的待遇。46岁在巴黎死于急性脑膜炎。

DRAMATIC W ORKS

S ALOMé (1893)

L ADY W INDERMERE'S F AN

A W OMAN OF N O I MPORTANCE (1893)

A N I DEAL H USBAND (1895).

T HE I MPORTANCE OF B EING E ARNEST (1899)

N OVEL

T HE P ICTURE OF D ORIAN G RAY (1891)