The Mind Creative March 2014
they knew who I was. As soon as they had been informed, they
laughed still more. For half an hour I stood there in the grey
November rain surrounded by a jeering mob. For a year after that
was done to me I wept every day at the same hour and for the
same space of time."
Oscar Wilde was physically and morally broken when he was
released from prison in 1897. He went into exile in France living
in cheap hotels and on the verge of bankruptcy. Wilde died of
meningitis on November 30, 1900 at the age of 46; bereft of love,
passion, money, and fame. A century after his death, Oscar Wilde
is still remembered more for his extraordinary wit, vigorous
personality and his imprisonment for homosexuality than for his
works of literature.
His extraordinary life can be best summed up in his own quote:
“In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what
one wants, and the other is getting it.”
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