The first major biography of Oscar Wilde in thirty years, and the most complete telling of his life and times to date. NOMINATED FOR THE WOLFSON HISTORY PRIZE 2019 'The Book of the Year, perhaps of the decade' TLS 'Simply the best modern biography of Wilde... A terrific achievement' Evening Standard 'Page-turning... Vivid and desperately moving. However much you think you know Wilde, this book will absorb and entertain you' The Sunday TimesBooks of the Year Oscar Wilde's life - like his wit - was alive with paradox. He was both an early exponent and a victim of 'celebrity culture': famous for being famous, he was lauded and ridiculed in equal measure. His achievements were frequently downplayed, his successes resented. He had a genius for comedy but strove to write tragedies. He was an unabashed snob who nevertheless delighted in exposing the faults of society. He affected a dandified disdain but was prone to great acts of kindness. Although happily married, he became a passionate lover of men and - at the very peak of his success - brought disaster upon himself. He disparaged authority, yet went to the law to defend his love for Lord Alfred Douglas. Having delighted in fashionable throngs, Wilde died almost alone. Above all, his flamboyant refusal to conform to the social and sexual orthodoxies of his day make him a hero and an inspiration to all who seek to challenge convention. Matthew Sturgis draws on a wealth of new material and fresh research, bringing alive the distinctive mood and characters of the fin de siecle in the richest and most compelling portrait of Wilde to date.

'To critics who said that the full-lipped so-called 'Beardsley mouth', which adorned many of his women, was 'inexpressive and ugly', the artist countered, 'Well, let them criticise. It's my mouth and not theirs. I like big mouths. People like the little mouth - the "Dolly Varden" mouth, if that describes it better. A big mouth is the sign of character and strength. Look at Ellen Terry with her great, strong mouth. In fact, I haven't any patience with small-mouthed people.' 'The popular idea of a picture is something told in oil or writ in water to be hung on a room's wall or in a picture gallery to perplex an artless public.' 'To my mind, there is nothing so depressing as a Gothic cathedral. I hate to have the sun shut out by the saints.' 'What a nice ample creature George Sand is: like a wonderful old cow with all her calves.' And other witty, urbane insights on life, art, and culture, illustrated with selected drawings from his Grotesques series.

Oscar Wilde's early fame ensured that throughout his short life he was written about by many of those he met. He was celebrated - or mocked - as the master of the ingenious epigram, the provocative paradox, the witty aside or the extravagant conceit. In researching his monumental biography of Wilde Matthew Sturgis found, in every major archive, sheets of foolscap in Wilde's distinctive handwriting, setting down a series of unfamiliar epigrams - unpublished try-outs. There were fascinating new discoveries. He uncovered dozens of unfamiliar and previously ungathered anecdotes about Wilde: sidelights on his days in Oxford, London, America and Paris and beyond, by society hostesses, men-about-town, actors, lawyers, minor litterateurs, artists and politicians, diligently setting down his actions, his mannerisms and above all his sayings. The items in this volume are all small additions to the Wilde story: some unfamiliar, others unexpected, they enrich and alter the picture of his life.

Robert Ross was one of the first people that Aubrey Beardsley met when he arrived in London to make his name in 1892. Within six years the young artist was dead; but the work he produced in that short time revolutionized British art, and he was fixed forever in the public imagination as one of the leading spirits of the decadent era. Like many others, Ross was taken not only by the evident originality and genius of Beardsley's work, but also by his character, remembering the "delightful and engaging smile both for friends and strangers," his modesty, wit, erudition, and--contrary to popular opinion--his "briskness and virility," or, as Beerbohm put it, his "stony common sense." Beardsley's reputation, both artistic and personal, was caught up in the hurricane that overtook avant garde art after the trial of Oscar Wilde. Ross set out in his pioneering biography to redress the balance. He memorialized the worth of the man he knew, and established the seriousness of his art, its roots in the work of the Old Masters (of whom Beardsley had considerable knowledge) and tracing the dramatic transformation as Beardsley matured in the six short years of his working life in London. This combination of personal memoir and informed analysis by someone at the heart of the artistic world of the 1890s makes this biography one of the most fascinating and evocative documents of the period. This republication is a close copy of the first stand-alone edition of 1909. It comes complete with all its original illustrations (and the advertisements for Beardsley's publications) and the catalogue of Beardsley's works by Aymer Vallance, which is still the cornerstone of Beardsley studies. It is introduced by Matthew Sturgis, Beardsley's most distinguished recent biographer. Robert Ross, son of the Attorney-General of Canada, was a key figure in avant garde arts and letters of the 1890's. Very unusually for this period, he acknowledged and accepted his homosexuality. It was he who first seduced Wilde, who helped him in his imprisonment and exile, and who rescued the estate to provide for Wilde's sons. His posthumous rehabilitation of Beardsley rescued the artist's reputation for future generations.

The first major life of the outstanding British painter - and Jack the Ripper suspect - Walter Sickert (1860-1942), by the highly acclaimed biographer of Aubrey Beardsley. Walter Richard Sickert is perhaps the outstanding figure of British art during the last hundred years. Many contemporary painters, from Hodgkin and Bacon to Auerbach and Kossof, acknowledge a debt to his influence. His career spanned six decades of unceasing experiment and achievement. As a young artist, he was welcomed and encouraged by Degas. He was the disciple of Whistler and mentor of Beardsley. He founded the London Impressionists and the Camden Town Group. He was taken up by both the Woolfs and the Sitwells. He gave painting lessons to Winston Churchill. His energy was prodigious and his personality fascinating: he was also an illustrator, cartoonist, writer, polemicist, teacher and wit. He relished controversy: his early paintings of London music halls and his late works, based on 18th-century etchings and contemporary news photographs, provoked outraged criticism from conventional commentators. Sturgis also devotes an appendix to charting in detail Sickert's posthumous life as a player in the 'Jack the Ripper' circus, assessing (and demolishing) the arguments of Patricia Cornwell and others in the light of his own discoveries.

Abigail McLellan (1969-2009) was known for her pared-down images that were set against richly-worked backgrounds of saturated colour. This limited edition of 100 incorporates a new, original colour etching produced exclusively for this publication from an image created by the artist and authenticated by the artist's widower, Alastair Wallace. The print is packaged with the book in a slipcase. Born in Middlesbrough, McLellan's family moved to Scotland when she was thirteen and her education was concluded at the Glasgow School of Art. McLellan's vision, for all its individuality, drew strongly upon the traditions of Scottish - and, particularly, Glaswegian - art. Her striking simplifications of form and her bold sense of design owed much to Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his circle. More contemporary influences included Joan Eardley and Craigie Aitchison. Yet McLellan's vision was very much her own and in her quest to create a comparable intensity of colour she evolved a highly personal technique, building up layer upon layer of translucent, quick-drying acrylic paint in short, stippled strokes.