Lively as their books are, they cannot compete with this capacious, deeply sympathetic and vastly entertaining new life by Richard Ellmann. The fate of Oscar Wilde, who like a hero of classic tragedy plummeted from the heights of fame to utter ruin, has attracted many biographers, among them that prince of liars Frank Harris and the anecdotal Hesketh Pearson. On the calling card - left 10 days earlier at the Albemarle Club - were the words, with the now-famous misspelling: 'To Oscar Wilde posing as a somdomite.' 'Bosie' was the pretty and amoral Lord Alfred Douglas his father the bellicose Marquess of Queensberry, who had established the rules for boxing.

I don't see anything now but a criminal prosecution. Bosie's father has left a card at my club with hideous words on it. 'Dearest Bobbie, Since I saw you something has happened. This edition make the popular and best selling biography available in paperback for the first time.ON FEBRUARY 28, 1895, the author of The Importance of Being Earnest, London's newest hit comedy, scribbled in pencil an anguished note to his friend Robert Ross. The tragic end of Wilde's life leaves the reader with a sense of compassion and grief for the protagonist. 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. Ellmann's definitive critical account of Wilde's entire oeuvre shows him as the proponent of a radical new aesthetic who was perilously at odds with Victorian society. 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 Wilde'stravels.

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. 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. Based on fresh material from many hitherto-untapped sources, Ellmann depicts Wilde's comet-like ascent on the Victorian scene and his equally dramatic sudden eclipse.

More astute and forbearing, yet more fallible than legend has allowed, Wilde is given here the dimensions of a modern hero. shipped within 2 working days of order About the book In this long-awaited bioraphy, Wilde the legendary Victorian - brilliant writer and conversationalist, reckless flouter of social and sexual conventions - is brought to life.

Oscar Wilde by Richard Ellmann