Oscar Wilde sought fame from a young age and achieved great heights as a writer known for his paradoxes, but was later overthrown in disgrace and fell into poverty. He treated life unconventionally and surrounded himself with mystery, displaying both cynical and spiritual traits. Wilde excelled academically from childhood, winning awards for his interest in antiquities, and went on to study at Trinity College Dublin and Oxford University. He was a charming conversationalist from a young age, known for his witty aphorisms in both life and literature where he portrayed himself as a great esthete.