Product Description

Oscar Wilde had one of literary history's most explosive love affairs with Lord Alfred "Bosie" Douglas. In 1895, Bosie's father, the Marquess of Queensberry, delivered a note to the Albemarle Club addressed to "Oscar Wilde posing as sodomite." With Bosie's encouragement, Wilde sued the Marquess for libel. He not only lost but he was tried twice for "gross indecency" and sent to prison with two years' hard labor. With this publication of the uncensored trial transcripts, readers can for the first time in more than a century hear Wilde at his most articulate and brilliant. The Real Trial of Oscar Wilde documents an alarmingly swift fall from grace; it is also a supremely moving testament to the right to live, work, and love as one's heart dictates.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #226714 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-23
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 340 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In 1895, Oscar Wilde was sentenced to two years of hard labor for "committing acts of gross indecency with other male persons." Wilde's story became a cautionary tale for homosexuals in Victorian England; in the century since, he has come to be celebrated as a martyr of the gay struggle for recognition. This volume, with an introduction and commentary by Wilde's grandson, Holland, publishes for the first time the unabridged transcript of the first of the three infamous trials that resulted in Wilde's destruction. The irony, as Holland's introduction makes abundantly clear, is that Wilde courted his imprisonment, suing his inamorata's father, the Marquess Queensberry, John Douglass, for libel when Queensberry left a card for him at the Albemarle Club that read, "For Oscar Wilde, posing sodomite." Wilde might have been best served by tearing up the card and forgetting it; instead, he pressed charges. But Wilde's riskiest step was treating the witness stand as a theatrical stage. When a prosecutor asked him if he had kissed a certain young man, Wilde joked, "Oh no, never in my life. He was a peculiarly plain boy." With that one flippant comment, Holland's text suggests, the die was cast. But the transcript and Holland's judicious notes also reveal how ill-served Wilde was by his counsel. Some of the same letters that were later used to convict Wilde were introduced by his own lawyers in this first trial as evidence. The general reader might find a work that condenses all three trial transcripts into one narrative, such as Moises Kaufman's stage adaptation, Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, more accessible, but this volume is invaluable for the Wilde enthusiast, the legal scholar, the champion of human rights and the student of English literature.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
“Inordinately gripping.” (New York Times )

“Tantalizing.” (Los Angeles Times )

“Brilliant.” (Seattle Weekly )

“An essential for aficionados...at times it is easy to forget that this is not one of Wilde’s own playscripts.” (The Observer )

“A fascinating document for anyone interested in the law or literature…as compelling as a Shakespearean tragedy.” (Legal Times )

“The author has a wry lucid style that moves along briskly...an excellent little book.” (Sunday Boston Globe on The Wilde Album )

“Touching … sharp, unsentimental … an expectedly vivid portrait.” (London Times on The Wilde Album )

“Marvellous … a feast.” (The Independent on The Wilde Album )

“This narrative remind[s] us what an extraordinary man his grandfather was—and how much he influenced the 20th century.” (New York Times Book Review on The Wilde Album )

“Sharp, unillusioned and free from family piety.” (Daily Telegraph (London) on The Wilde Album )

“Invaluable for the Wilde enthusiast, the legal scholar, the champion of human rights, and the student of English literature.” (Publishers Weekly )

“A gripping and fascinating volume [that]...ranks with the Apology, Plato’s account of the trial of Socrates.” (Daily Telegraph (London) )

Sunday Boston Globe on The Wilde Album
“The author has a wry lucid style that moves along briskly...an excellent little book.”