To London Society, at the end of the 19th century, there was no
greater playwright than Oscar Wilde. On 14th February 1895 The
Importance of Being Earnest, possibly his most famous play, opened
to a rapturous reception, and Oscar, recently returned from Algiers
was the toast of the town. Society knew Wilde as a happily married
man, the father of two boys, although it was also noticed that he
had a predilection of the company of young men. His preferred
companion was Lord Alfred Douglas, commonly known as Bosie. By May
1895, Society had shunned Wilde, shocked and horrified at what had
been revealed in a scandalous court and Wilde was sentenced to two
years hard labour because he refused to 'repudiate his love for
Bosie and his love for men.' What Society found acceptable behind
closed doors was not acceptable in the open. How and why this
change of fortune happened has been explained in many previous
biographies of Wilde. But in The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde, Neil
McKenna goes beyond the usual level of biography to argue that
Wilde was driven creatively by his desires for sex with young men.
He discusses for the first time the connection between the works
and the sexual life of Wilde. This is not an easy read; some people
may find the descriptions of homosexual activity off-putting. But
there is no doubt that with unprecedented access to many papers,
letters and photographs in the possession of Merlin Holland,
Wilde's grandson, many of them previously unpublished, McKenna has
written a compelling, if somewhat unsettling, account of the life
of Oscar Wilde. (Kirkus UK)
'I have put my genius into my life but only my talent into my
work'. So said Oscar Wilde of his remarkable life - a life more
complex, more erotic, more troubled and more triumphant than any of
his contemporaries ever knew or suspected. Neil McKenna's The
Secret Life of Oscar Wilde charts fully for the first time Oscar's
astonishing erotic odyssey through Victorian London's sexual
underworld. Oscar Wilde emerges as a man driven personally and
creatively by his powerful desires for sex with men, and Neil
McKenna argues compellingly and convincingly that Oscar's Wilde's
life and work can only be fully understood and appreciated in terms
of his sexuality. The book draws of a vast range of sources, many
of them previously unpublished, and includes startling new material
like the statements made to the police by the male prostitutes and
blackmailers ranged against Oscar Wilde at his trial which have
been lost for over a century. Dazzlingly written, The Secret Life
of Oscar Wilde meticulously and brilliantly reconstructs Oscar
Wilde's emotional and sexual life, painting an astonishingly frank
and vivid portrait of a troubled genius who chose to martyr himself
for the cause of love between men.
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