Oscar Wilde was a reform writer through the trenchant moral and social criticism in his works. Famous for his public speaking and wit, Wilde has often been accused of merely reproducing witty repartee in his plays, and the temptation to treat his work lightly is in large part due to his flamboyant and notorious lifestyle, which is often better known than his writings. He posed as an Aesthete and a Decadent, which were movements of the late-Victorian age whose followers believed in "art for art's sake." Wilde himself stated in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) that "All art is at once surface and symbol." Nevertheless, Wilde advocated reform through social critique in his plays, short stories, novel, essays, and poems, and he challenged Victorian morality with his work and his lifestyle. There is much more to Wilde than "surface and symbol."

Oscar Fingall O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born...