Oscar: A Biography - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1788545974 ISBN 13: 9781788545976

Publisher: Head of Zeus

'The Book of the Year, perhaps of the decade, has to be Matthew Sturgis's Oscar' TLS, Books of the Year. NOMINATED FOR THE WOLFSON HISTORY PRIZE 2019. A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR. 'Simply the best modern biography of Wilde ... A terrific achievement' Evening Standard. 'Page-turning ... Vivid and desperately moving. However much you think you know Wilde, this book will absorb and entertain you' Sunday Times. 'Wonderfully exciting ... Sturgis's great achievement is to take on board his great flurry of contradictions' Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday. '[Sturgis] is a tremendous orchestrator of material, fastidious, unhurried, indefatigable' Observer. 'Oscar Wilde is more fashionable than ever ... Sturgis's account of the hearing at the Old Bailey is as gripping as it is grim' Guardian. 'The Book of the Year, perhaps of the decade, has to be Matthew Sturgis's Oscar which captures the wit, the love-ability, the dramatic genius, the insane self-destructiveness, the originality of Wilde ... [Sturgis] is the greatest chronicler of the 1890s we have ever had' TLS, Books of the Year. Oscar Wilde's life like his wit was alive with paradox. He was both an early exponent and a victim of 'celebrity culture': famous for being famous, he was lauded and ridiculed in equal measure. His achievements were frequently downplayed, his successes resented. He had a genius for comedy but strove to write tragedies. He was an unabashed snob who nevertheless delighted in exposing the faults of society. He affected a dandified disdain but was prone to great acts of kindness. Although happily married, he became a passionate lover of men and at the very peak of his success brought disaster upon himself. He disparaged authority, yet went to the law to defend his love for Lord Alfred Douglas. Having delighted in fashionable throngs, Wilde died almost alone: barely a dozen people were at his graveside. Yet despite this ruinous end, Wilde's star continues to shine brightly

About the Author:

Matthew Sturgis is a writer with a particular enthusiasm for the cultural world of the late-nineteenth century and is the author of acclaimed biographies of Aubrey Beardsley and Walter Sickert. He has also contributed to the TLS, Daily Telegraph and Independent on Sunday. He is a member of the Oscar Wilde Society and contributes reviews to their journal The Wildean.

Review:

PRAISE FOR WALTER SICKERT: 'A truly comprehensive, grandsweep biography. Detailed, amusing and moving. Brilliantly done, an outstanding achievement. At last Sickert has the biography he deserves' Spectator. 'Excellent and authoritative, Sturgis's scholarship is exemplary' Guardian. 'Magisterial, taut and fresh, it is a measure of how impressive Sickert's life, career and influence is that it feels more apt to argue that the artist has been fortunate in his biographer' Independent.