Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde (born 1854, Dublin, died 1900, Paris) is an Irish writer, poet and dramatist whose reputation rests on his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), and on his comic masterpieces Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). He was the best representative for the late 19th-century Aesthetic movement in England, which advocated art for art’s sake, but also the object of civil and criminal suits involving homosexuality and ending in his imprisonment. Wilde was born of professional and literary parents, his father was a surgeon who also published books, and his mother was a revolutionary poet and an authority on Celtic myth and folklore.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

The Picture of Dorian Gray is the only novel written by Oscar Wilde, published for the first time in 1890. It deals with Aestheticism and Decadentism and is one of the modern classics of Western Literature. It is considered a work of classic gothic fiction with a strong Faustian theme in which the main character sells his soul for eternal youth.

The Picture of Dorian Gray tells the story of a handsome young man who wants to remain young and beautiful forever. After having his portrait done, Dorian Gray, under the influence of the eloquent Lord Henry Wotton, wishes for the picture to age instead of him so that he may be blessed with eternal youth. All his evil deeds and actions will appear on the canvas, while he never changes or becomes old. The signs of the passing years appear on his portrait, and the face on the portrait becomes old and wrinkled.

George Orwell

(1903-1950)

Life and works: George Orwell, the pseudonym of Eric Arthur Blair, was born in Bengal but grew up in England and was educated at Eton. From 1922 to 1927 he served with the Indian Police in Burma where he started to dislike class privilege, authority and English imperialism.This experience in the East is reflected in his first novel Burmese Days published in 1934. When he returned to Europe he lived in poverty until the mid-1930’s when his financial position changed after the publication of Down and Out in Paris and London well received by the critics.

Nineteen eighty-four

 George Orwell wrote Nineteen eighty-four  between 1944 and 1948, in the immediate aftermath of World War II. His vision of an omni-present and repressive State was influenced by world events of his own time. He had understood that modern government was capable not only of influencing people's actions, but of controlling their thoughts, making any sort of resistance impossible. He also feared that Britain would turn away from liberal democracy and embrace either fascism or socialism.  The novel was published in 1949 and it is considered a terrifying glimpse into the future.