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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What magazine does Oscar Wilde publish in from 1887 to 1888?

2. How did Oscar Wilde handle the disruption of his Harvard lecture?

3. How did Oscar Wilde feel about how the French interpreted aestheticism?

4. Who cables Oscar Wilde with an invitation to lecture?

5. What does Robert Harborough Sherard do for Oscar Wilde?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Oscar Wilde do for work after he gives up lecturing?

2. How are Oscar Wilde's lectures received in America?

3. Why does Oscar Wilde skip his Baltimore speaking engagement?

4. Describe Oscar Wilde's meeting with Walt Whitman.

5. Describe Oscar Wilde's contact with Catholicism at Oxford.

6. What did Oscar Wilde do when he lost his University Demyship?

7. How did Oscar Wilde feel about his studies at Oxford?

8. Where does Oscar Wilde move after graduating from Oxford?

9. What themes does Oscar Wilde write about in his journalism?

10. Describe Oscar Wilde's marriage to Constance Lloyd.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Oscar Wilde was baptized both as a Protestant and as a Catholic. What do these religions represent to him? Why does he consider converting to Catholicism? What does he hope to gain? What does he expect to free himself from in his Protestant faith? What would conversion have meant to him and to the people around him?

Essay Topic 2

Oscar Wilde developed an epigrammatic style at Oxford. What is the form and function of an epigram? How does the epigram suit Wilde's style and social role? How does Wilde use epigrams, and how does his epigrammatic wit benefit him? What other styles does he use in addition to the epigram? What purpose do his other styles serve?

Essay Topic 3

From 1887 to 1889, Oscar Wilde edited magazines. How did his editorial work change his literary style? Did it affect his plays? His poems? His aesthetic theories? His public personality? Did his work as a magazine editor help or hurt his development as a literary writer and critic?

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