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The King of Life by Jan Parandowski is a novelized biography of the Irish writer Oscar Wilde. The author traces his life from his student days in Dublin and Oxford, through his rise among the most famous writers and esthetes of Victorian England, to his tragic fall after a trial and prison sentence. Wilde is portrayed as an exceptionally gifted, witty and charismatic man who believes that beauty and art have the greatest value in human life. His way of life, witty humor and unconventional attitudes bring him fame, but also provoke the condemnation of the society of that time.

The central part of the novel is devoted to the relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas, the conflict with the Marquess of Queensberry and the trial that ends with Wilde's imprisonment. After his release from prison, years of poverty, illness and loneliness followed in exile, where the writer gradually lost his former reputation, but not his artistic greatness.

Parandowski writes not only a biography, but a psychological portrait of a man torn between the desire for freedom, love and artistic ideals and the strict moral norms of Victorian society. The work highlights the price an individual can pay for their own difference and true to themselves, leaving a strong message about the relationship between art, freedom and social prejudice.