Overview

Oscar Wilde died in November 1900, exiled in Paris and exhausted by scandal and prison life. The details of his life in the limelight are well known; what have regularly been ignored are the reverberations of the scandal for decades after his death. With pathos, humour, and his grandfather's signature wit, Holland charts the extraordinary afterlife of the legendary writer and thinker, and traces the dramatic fluctuations in Wilde's posthumous reputation over the past 125 years. A true feat of storytelling and scholarship, After Oscar tells the story of Oscar's wife Constance and his sons Cyril and Vyvyan; his lovers, friends, and enemies; the afterlife of De Profundis; sightings from beyond the grave; the fate of the Wilde estate; and Oscar's contemporary status as a gay icon. The most important work on Wilde in over fifty years, After Oscar exposes decades of sensationalist conjecture surrounding the Wilde family, and documents a century of homophobia within the British establishment. Illuminating and heartbreaking, Holland has written a book that will amuse, infuriate, fascinate, and shock. Readers beware-you're in for a Wilde ride.

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9781787705920

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Reviews

“As good as being in the gallery. Enthralling.” * Peter Ackroyd, The Times (On Irish Peacock) * “Holland has produced a gripping and fascinating volume that entirely supersedes previous accounts of the Queensberry trial... with a number of unfamiliar biographical details and intriguing glimpses into [Wilde’s] private life.” * Daily Telegraph (On Irish Peacock) *

Author Information

Merlin Holland, the only grandson of Oscar Wilde, is an author living in France. For the last 40 years he has been researching his grandfather's life and works, and writes, lectures, and broadcasts regularly on the subject in English, French, and German. His most notable publications include Irish Peacock and Scarlet Marquess, the first complete, verbatim record of the libel trial which ultimately brought Oscar Wilde to ruin, and The Wilde Album, a pictorial biography of Oscar Wilde. After Oscar, his latest book, is an account of Oscar's posthumous life and traces the extraordinary fluctuations in his grandfather's reputation after his death. After Oscar's conviction in 1895, his wife, Constance, and their two sons were forced to move abroad and change their name to Holland. The family has never reverted to the name Wilde.

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