Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born on October 16, 1854, in Dublin, Ireland. He later dropped the three middle names, stating that his entire name was much too long for someone who would be as famous as he. As late as his college days, however, he signed his contributions to the Trinity College classical magazine Kottabos with the initials "O. F. O. F. W. W." Wilde would spend his life daring to be different.
Born to William Robert Wills Wilde, a noted ear and eye surgeon and author, and Jane Francesca Elgee Wilde, a novelist and poet who wrote using the pseudonym Speranza, Wilde had an older brother, William Robert Kingsbury Wills Wilde ("Willie"), and a younger sister, Isola Francesca Emily Wilde, who died of a fever and "sudden effusion on the brain" just short of her tenth birthday in 1867. Wilde was especially affected by her death and later wrote a poem ("Requiescat") about her. Isola's attending physician remembered Wilde as "an affectionate, gentle, retiring, dreamy boy."
In 1871, when he was sixteen years old, Wilde enrolled in Trinity College in Dublin. He was already fluent in French and especially interested in Greek classical literature. He was considerably influenced by his tutor, the Reverend J. P. Mahaffy, a professor of ancient history whom Wilde would later call "my first and my best teacher." Wilde toured Italy with Reverend Mahaffy in 1875 and visited Greece and Italy with his former tutor in 1877. He credited Mahaffy with teaching him to "love Greek things" and opening his mind. Mahaffy's influence may have encouraged Wilde's imagination. On one occasion, Mahaffy commented that he was only punished once in his life, and that was "for telling the truth." An acquaintance responded, "It certainly cured you, Mahaffy."
At twenty, Wilde matriculated at Magdalen College, Oxford. He loved the school and the life, calling Oxford the most beautiful place in England and recalling this as the "most flower-like time" in his life. There were social adjustments, but he soon learned to control a convulsive laugh and a lisp and to lose his Irish accent.
