One of the most detailed, well-researched and gripping biographies I've ever read.

A fascinating, poignant, and sometimes too-detailed look at the life of Oscar Wilde and his "Urantian" friends, lovers, and acquaintances.

This man was a true hero and the book shows us a brave lamb to the slaughter. It reveals the secret gay world of Victorian London in vivid detail. Unputdownable.

This is riveting and heartbreaking biography of the wonderfully talented Oscar Wilde that tells all about the writer's life in a vivid way. At the heart of the book is the trial that broke down Wilde and ended up in his outrageous incarceration. McKenna has left no stone unturned, and you almost feel, reading those pages, as if he was not only in the courtroom, but also in Wilde's bedroom, in his friends and nemesis' houses, in the cell where he was locked down. That, of course, makes for a fascinating read - and McKenna is clever enough to show all of Wilde's faces, revealing a complex and tortured man behind the facade. But more than that, this book is also a passionate cry for compassion, justice, and tolerance, three things that, sadly, Wilde was denied in his lifetime. The humiliating treatment he had to endure for just being gay is, for us in this day and age, really horrifying. And there are few things sadder than Wilde's last year.

Interesting work which focuses on Wilde's feelings more than on his literary career. As ever, you may not like the man but you may like the work, or vice versa. In this case, I have happened to like the man: he chose to live as freely as he could given his circumstances. My only criticism is the way he treated his wife and children; he did not have to marry, but once he did, I think he should have behaved otherwise with his family.
Great reading, anyway.

I loved this book. I had really no idea all that Oscar Wilde went through in his life, and it was both beautiful and tragic to see his great triumphs and the eventual tragedy of his life. And inspiration, to be sure, but it is good to learn from his mistakes as well. There is such a thing as being too sure of oneself. His love affair with Bosie is detailed in this book and is extremely beautiful, but it's really too bad that Bosie denied ever having loved Oscar later. Oscar Wilde took hedonism to its logical--and illogical--extreme, and I think it's important for any former, current, or prospective modern hedonists to read, so as to gain a bit of perspective.

Anyone who has fallen in love with Oscar Wilde's witt will enjoy learning about his dandyish life. He was far from perfect, but all the more interesting and lovable for it. I highly recommend this to anyone who is interested in Oscar Wilde and his works.

<...Literatūra visada seka gyvenimu. Ji jo nekopijuoja, bet perkuria savais tikslais...>

Wow!!
This book is just breathtaking in the sheer amount of detail and clarity of presentation...

I have read numerous biographies, narratives, articles etc about The Great Oscar as well as watching a large number of documentaries and films. This book gives a completely different impression on the man, his life and his works and, especially, his relationship with Bosie.

I suspect that much of the difference is that this book was published in 2003 - long after the SOA 1967 and the numerous changes that have occurred in society since that date.

McKenna's prose is engaging - despite the often deeply serious subject-matter he manages to 'keep it light' and carries the reader along with him, making light work of the 600+ pages of actual text [notes, bibliography index etc take up nearly another hundred pages]. Referencing is inconspicuous - there are no footnotes or endnotes to distract but all information is fully referenced at the end should the reader require that.

I read this in parallel with several other books so it has taken a while but the chapters are conveniently short and I never felt that I had lost the thread.

Truly a masterwork!

So. This is exactly the biography of Oscar Wilde I would write if I were to uh, write one. It focuses on the important questions like, "Whom did he have sex with, maybe?" and "Whom did his friends have sex with, maybe?" No matter if in answering these questions he uses the most questionable sources, for example Trelawny Backhouse, who in addition to claiming all sorts of salacious things about Oscar Wilde and Bosie also claimed to have had sex with the Empress of China. Frankly, if there was anything, anything that had to do with Oscar Wilde and homosexuality and I was writing a book on Oscar Wilde and homosexuality, I would go ALL OUT, too and just put everything I could find in there. If I found out that some guy had sent letters to Oscar and later Oscar had dinner with him then I am writing that, yeah, maybe they had sex, okay? All in the effort to answer the biggest, most important question: "Just how much of a flaming queen was Oscar Wilde?" because the answer is girl, the man was OSCAR WILDE, you could make up all sorts of shit and it wouldn't come close.

The quality of the prose and the charisma of the subject himself gets this to three stars. But it's essentially little more than a log of his sex life: yawn.

Kindof boring....he was definitely freaky