After Oscar: The Legacy of a Scandal

THE DEFINITIVE STUDY OF OSCAR WILDE’S POSTHUMOUS REPUTATION, WRITTENBY WILDE’S ONLY GRANDSON

«A fascinating sweep through a hundred years from Wilde’s death to now.»—Stephen Fry

«Gripping»—The Times

«Wilde’s afterlife remains almost as rich and entertaining as his life.»—The Guardian

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.

One of the most important works 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.