“One should either wear a work of art, or be a work of art,” Oscar Wilde once declared. In The Invention of Oscar Wilde, Nicholas Frankel explores Wilde’s self-creation as a “work of art” and a carefully constructed cultural icon. Frankel takes readers on a journey through Wilde’s inventive, provocative life, from his Irish origins—and their public erasure—through his challenges to traditional concepts of masculinity and male sexuality, his marriage and his affairs with young men, including his great love Lord Alfred Douglas, to his criminal conviction and final years of exile in France. Along the way, Frankel takes a deep look at Wilde’s writings, paradoxical wit, and intellectual convictions.
Author(s): Nicholas Frankel
Edition: 1
Publisher: Reaktion Books
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 272
Tags: Literary Criticism, Literary Theory, Victorian Literature
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
Introduction
One: The Birth of ‘Oscar Wilde’
Two: The Poetry of Englishness
Three: ‘Nothing to Declare Except My Genius’
Four: ‘Married . . . in Consequence of a Misunderstanding’: London 1883–6
Five: The Rhythmical Value of Prose: Wilde’s Career in Fiction
Six: Paradox and Perversity: Wilde as a Subversive Thinker
Seven: Drama as a Mode of Personal Expression
Eight: ‘A Poet Who Loves Boys’
Nine: Prisoner c.3.3.
Ten: Sebastian Melmoth
Epilogue: ‘A Man Who Stood in Symbolic Relations to . . . My Age’
References
Select Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Photo Acknowledgements
Index
