The Invention of Oscar Wilde shows how the famous writer and aesthete built up his public image so successfully that it still resonates today.
OSCAR WILDE BOOKS FULL
Even those who already know Wilde’s story by heart will enjoy Frankel’s detailed analysis of the way Wilde influenced, and was influenced by, those around him. Drawing on material that has come to light in the past 30 years, including newly discovered letters, documents, first draft notebooks, and the full transcript of the libel trial, Matthew Sturgis portrays the key events and influences that shaped Oscar Wildes life, returning the man to his times, and to the facts, giving us Wildes own experience as he experienced it. Pictures of Wilde, and of contemporary satirical portrayals of him, demonstrate this link between man and image. Frankel employs close readings of Wilde’s works to reveal the impact of the people, events, and revelations that shaped him throughout his life. The manuscripts of The Duchess Of Padua, written by Wilde about 1883 for Mary Anderson, but not acted by her, was published in a German translation (Die Herzogin von Padua, translated by Max Meyerfeld) in Berlin. Frankel unpacks and examines each of these labels, how they interacted with each other, and how they have continued to influence public perception of Wilde’s legacy from his death to the present day. Ross published a much expurgated version of the letter (about 30 only) in 1905 (4 years after Wildes death) with the title The Letters of Oscar Wilde.
He also had many roles assigned to him by others: copycat, poseur, genius, defendant, convicted criminal. He assumed many roles throughout his life: poet, art critic, dandy, Englishman, self-promoter, playwright.
His father, Sir William Wilde, was Ireland’s leading oto-ophthalmologic surgeon, who also published books on archaeology, folklore and the satirist writer Jonathan Swift.His mother, who wrote under the name Speranza, was a revolutionary poet and an authority on Celtic myths and folklore. “Oscar Wilde is an icon to both writers and the LGBTQ+ community. Wilde was born to professional and literary parents.