Chronology of Wilde’s Life

1854	16 October	Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wilde is born at 21 Westland Row, Dublin to Lady Jane Francesca Wilde (‘Speranza’) and Sir William Robert Wills Wilde. He is their second son, his brother William having been born in 1852.
1855		The Wilde family moves to Merrion Square.
1857		Wilde’s sister Isola is born.
1864–71		Attends Portora Royal School, Enniskillen.
1867		Death of Isola Wilde.
1871–74		Studies Classics at Trinity College, Dublin.
1874	17 October	Matriculates at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he studies ‘Greats’ (Classics).
1876	19 April	Death of Wilde’s father.
1878	19 July	Achieves a First in ‘Finals’ at Oxford.
1879		Moves to London.
	May	Wilde’s mother and elder brother move to London.
1880		Writes his first play Vera; Or, The Nihilists.
1881	June	Publication of Poems.
1882		Lectures in the USA and Canada on art and Aestheticism.
1882–83		Writes The Duchess of Padua.
1883–84		Lectures throughout England on art and Aestheticism.
1884	29 May	Marries Constance Lloyd in London.
1885		Wilde’s career as a journalist begins in earnest. He starts to review regularly for the Pall Mall Gazette, and continues to do so until 1890.
	1 January	Wilde and his wife move into 16 Tite Street, Chelsea.
	5 June	Wilde’s first son, Cyril, is born.
1886		Wilde meets the seventeen-year-old Robert Ross, and embarks on his first significant homosexual affair.
	February	Compiles a list of his favourite, and least favourite, books for the Pall Mall Gazette.
	3 November	Wilde’s second son, Vyvyan, is born.
	18 November	Wilde’s review of Harry Quilter’s Sententiæ Artis appears in the Pall Mall Gazette.
	24 November	Lectures on Thomas Chatterton.
1888	May	Publication of The Happy Prince and Other Tales.
1889	January	Publication of ‘The Decay of Lying’.
	July	Publication of ‘The Portrait of Mr W.H.’.
1890		Publication, in two parts, of ‘The True Function and Value of Criticism’, later reissued as ‘The Critic as Artist’.
	20 June	Publication of the original magazine version of Wilde’s novel ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’.
1891	February	Publication of ‘The Soul of Man under Socialism’.
	April	Publication, in book form, of the enlarged version of The Picture of Dorian Gray.
	May	Publication of Intentions.
	July	Publication of Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime and Other Stories.
	July	Wilde meets Lord Alfred Douglas.
	November	Publication of A House of Pomegranates.
	October–	Wilde is the ‘great event’ of the social season
	December	in Paris. During his stay he writes Salomé, in French.
1892	20 February	West End production of Lady Windermere’s Fan.
	May	Publication of the limited edition of Wilde’s Poems.
1893	22 February	Publication of Salomé.
	19 April	West End production of A Woman of No Importance.
	October	Rents rooms at Nos 10 and 11 St James’s Place.
	9 November	Publication of Lady Windermere’s Fan.
1894	9 February	Publication of the English version of Salome.
	June	Publication of Wilde’s poem The Sphinx.
	June	Douglas’s father, the Marquess of Queens berry, confronts Wilde in his library at Tite Street.
	9 October	Publication of A Woman of No Importance.
1895	January	West End production of An Ideal Husband.
	February	West End production of The Importance of Being Earnest.
	February–	Wilde discovers Queensberry’s insulting card
	March	at his club and prosecutes him for libel.
	3 April	The Queensberry trial opens.
	5 April	Queensberry is acquitted and Wilde is arrested.
	6–26 April	Wilde awaits trial in Holloway prison.
	24 April	Public auction of Wilde’s library and household effects.
	26 April	Wilde’s first trial opens. The jury fail to reach a verdict. A new trial is set for 20 May.
	25 May	At his second trial Wilde is found guilty of committing acts of ‘gross indecency’ and sentenced to two years’ hard labour. He is taken to Holloway prison.
	November	Transferred to Reading Gaol.
1896	3 February	Death of Wilde’s mother.
1896–97		Wilde writes De Profundis.
1897	19 May	Wilde is released. He crosses the Channel to Dieppe and then settles at Berneval-sur-Mer.
	September	Leaves Berneval for Naples.
1898	February	Moves to Paris, which remains his base for the rest of his life. Publication of The Ballad of Reading Gaol.
	7 April	Death of Constance in Genoa.
1899	February	Publication of The Importance of Being Earnest.
	July	Publication of An Ideal Husband.
1900	30 November	Wilde dies in Paris.