sections:
One of the most colourful figures of the Victorian age, Oscar Wilde is now seen as a giant of British theatre. His social comedy The Importance of Being Earnest is regularly cited as many theatergoers’ favorite play. Wilde himself, once the darling of London Society, became a pariah after his prosecution for gross indecency, yet now he is widely viewed as a hero and a martyr.
Jonathan Fryer’s Wilde makes a refreshing reappraisal of the subject’s life and work, in particular exploding the myth that prison destroyed him. Moreover, although Oscar Wilde died in relative poverty, his three years in France, Italy and Switzerland after his release from jail were an opportunity for him to indulge his tastes for good food, champagne and compliant youths.
A Patron of the Oscar Wilde Society, Jonathan is an acknowledge expert on Oscar Wilde and his circle, having published critically-acclaimed earlier books on Wilde’s devoted friend Robbie Ross and the turbulent friendship between Wilde and the French novelist Andre Gide. Wilde is published in the pocket-book format Haus series of the Life and Times of major artistic and literary figures, lavishly illustrated and including a useful chronology of both the subject’s life and its context.
book reviews
- Independent on Sunday
"This short introduction scores off its weightier rivals in several respects: it is rarely polemical, it combines both caution and brio, and, perforce, it is tight." - Richard Smith, Gay Times
" … an interesting addition to the burgeoning Wilde cannon." - Don Mead, Intentions
"… immensely readable." - Stewart Rayment, Liberator
"… the best short work on Wilde currently on the market."
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