Oscar Wilde was born in 1856 in Dublin. Raconteur, socialite, and aesthete in the end of the 19th century Pre- Raphaelite London, he is remembered for his jeweled prose and poetry and such lasting works and The Picture of Dorian Gray, and of course, The Importance of Being Earnest. He told and retold his fairy tales to friends in private readings, refining them further each time before finally publishing them in two collections between 1888 and 1891 to great acclaim and lasting popularity ever since. Much of their charm is due to Wilde's intention that the stories be "studies in prose... meant partly for children, and partly for those who have kept the childlike faculties of wonder and joy, and who find in simplicity a subtle strangeness." Often whimsical and sometimes sad, they all shine with poetry and magic.