Oscar Wilde

About Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) remains a towering figure in literary history, primarily renowned as a poet and playwright whose sharp wit defined the Aesthetic movement. His major works, such as *The Picture of Dorian Gray* and plays like *The Importance of Being Earnest*, cemented his reputation for brilliant paradox and aesthetic philosophy, earning him the #541 rank in MIT’s Historical Popularity Index. His influence spans literature, social commentary, and LGBTQ+ history, despite his relatively short, dramatic life.

In the modern digital sphere, Wilde commands significant attention, receiving approximately 2.0 million annualized Wikipedia pageviews in 2025. This level of interest places him in an 'overattention' bracket, indicated by an Attention Gap score of +6x relative to his historical ranking. For contrast, this is less than half the attention garnered by musician Bob Dylan (#736 HPI rank, 12.7M views) and significantly less than comedian Robin Williams (#966 HPI rank, 5.4M views). However, he is vastly more visible online than figures deemed historically more pivotal, such as Elizabeth I (#14 HPI rank), who only registers 321K views.

Despite the high volume of traffic, the yearly trend shows a slight decline, with pageviews dropping by -6.0% year-over-year, though his recent quarterly momentum suggests a very slight rebound of +1% between Q1 and Q3 of 2025.