My father has a lot of friends in the publishing industry, and sometimes he’ll come back with books that he was given for free. And sometimes, he’ll think that I’d be more interested in those books than he is, so he gives them over to me to read. I have to say that I’m really glad he gave me this particular book, because if it wasn’t for him giving it to me I don’t think I would have picked it up otherwise.

What I loved about this book is that, while its main focus is, indeed, Oscar Wilde, it also delves into Wilde’s parents and who they were in their own right. The author posits the theory that we can’t truly understand the man that Oscar Wilde was without understanding the people who brought him up, because who they were heavily influenced and reflected on who Wilde eventually became.

The book is split into two distinct parts, albeit not really outlined in the book itself – the first half concerns itself with Wilde’s parents, who they were, what their interests were, and the kind of society that they kept in an Ireland that was striving for independence. The second half of the book concerns Wilde himself a lot more directly, although it does also still mention his parents and brother, as well as friends of his that are relevant to the picture that this book is trying to paint. And all in all, what this book is trying to do is something that no other biography on Wilde has done before – it’s trying to give you an image of Wilde in the context of his family.

The book is incredibly well researched and very well written. While it is a biography, and so the writing can be somewhat dry and matter-of-fact at times, it gives a complete overview of Wilde’s life – his relationships (both with family and with other people), his intellect, his education, his travels, his scandals. The book paints a picture of Wilde that I don’t think I’ve considered before. As a literature student, Wilde was always presented to me as an eccentric genius who did one too many things too outspokenly and ended up on the wrong side of the law for it. Wilde, to most of my contemporaries, is remembered as a brilliant writer, but a man who was labelled as a degenerate.

This book completely changed my mind on that. Wilde was a man with so much heart and soul, so much love and patience, and certainly an intellect that far surpassed many people. He loved attention and he knew how to get it, but he was often misguided thanks to his pride. And reading this book helped me discover so many things about him that I wouldn’t have otherwise.

Some of my favourite facts I got from this book are these:

Wilde’s father was involved in a scandal involving a young woman that ended his career as a doctor, that would then be repeated with Oscar himself when his homosexuality came to light;
Wilde’s brother, Willie, had a daughter who moved to Paris and who, apparently, was notoriously homosexual like her uncle;
Wilde had two sons, one of who died in World War Two, and one of who had children who are still alive today;
The man that Wilde ended up losing his career over died not too long ago, and apparently had stated before his death that everything that people said about him was an exaggeration;
The only reason the Oscar Wilde case held any validity in court is because Wilde was notorious for befriending young male prostitutes who then testified against him in court for unruly behaviour.
If you want to learn more about Oscar Wilde in a way that is well researched and very well presenting, I couldn’t recommend this book enough. ( )

This book has perhaps less about Oscar Wilde himself than most biographies because its focus is on Oscar's family and the cultural context he was raised in. The author did an good job of portraying Oscar's mother and brother in particular. However, I felt the author assumed that readers knew more about the social movements and artists of the time than most readers would. The book was educational, but not entertaining. Mostly, I was left with the feeling that I would not have wanted to be part of that society! ( )