The Picture of Dorian Gray

Oscar Wilde, born in 1854 in Dublin, initially studied at Trinity College in Dublin and then at Oxford, where he increasingly turned to aestheticism, which he made the measure of all things not only in art but also in life. In 1884, he married in London, and two sons were born. In the following years, he became increasingly estranged from his wife and became more aware of his homoerotic inclinations. At the same time, his fame steadily grew; essays, his only novel 'The Picture of Dorian Gray', fairy tales, short stories, and several plays emerged in quick succession. In 1895, he became embroiled in a trial with the father of his lover, the young Lord Alfred Douglas, which became his downfall: Wilde was sentenced to hard labor and was now socially and artistically finished. Released from his solitary cell in 1897, he fled to France, undertook some travels, and died resigned in Paris in 1900.

Jörg W. Rademacher, born in 1962, studied English and Romance languages and earned his doctorate in 1993. Since 1996, he has been a freelance writer and translator with a focus on Irish literature and history. Danny Morrison, born and raised in Belfast, is today one of the intellectual leaders of the republican movement in Northern Ireland. As editor-in-chief of the newspaper An Phoblacht/Republican News, he was appointed director of Sinn Féin's publicity department in 1982. From 1982 to 1986, Morrison was a Sinn Féin representative in the Northern Ireland Parliament, the Stormont Assembly. Accused of IRA membership, he was arrested in Belfast in 1990 and later sentenced to eight years in prison, but was released early in May 1995 as part of the initiated peace talks. He now lives as a freelance journalist and author in Belfast.