In this long-awaited bioraphy Wilde the legendary Victorian - brilliant writer and conversationalist reckless flouter of social and sexual conventions - is brought to life. More astute and forbearing yet more fallible than legend has allowed Wilde is given here the dimensions of a modern hero. Based on fresh material from many hitherto-untapped sources Ellmann depicts Wildes comet-like ascent on the Victorian scene and his equally dramatic sudden eclipse. His Irish background the actresses to whom he paid court his unfortunate wife and lovers his clothes coiffures and the decor of his rooms - all are presented here in vivid detail. The saga of his 1882 American tour is recounted with a wealth of new details; also his later impact on the bastions of the French literary establishment. The London of the Nineties of Whistler and the Pre-Raphaelites Lillie Langtry and the Prince of Wales is evoked alongside Paris of the belle epoque and the Greece Italy and North Africa of Wildestravels. Ellmanns definitive critical account of Wildes entire oeuvre shows him as the proponent of a radical new aesthetic who was perilously at odds with Victorian society. After his period of success and daring the fatal love affair with Lord Alfred Douglas is followed by exposure imprisonment a few wretched years abroad and death in exile. The tragic end of Wildes life leaves the reader with a sense of compassion and grief for the protagonist. This edition make the popular and best selling biography available in paperback for the first time.
