Oscar Wilde's Scandalous Summer: The 1894 Worthing Holiday and the AftermathIn the summer of 1894 Oscar Wilde spent eight weeks in Worthing, during which he wrote his masterpiece, The Importance of Being Earnest. This family holiday was a microcosm of Wilde’s complicated life during the three years between his falling in love with Lord Alfred Douglas and his imprisonment in 1895. While Constance Wilde, lonely and depressed, fell in love with her husband’s publisher, Wilde was spending his time with the feckless and demanding Douglas, and with three teenage boys he took sailing, swimming and fishing. One of these boys was Alphonse Conway, with whom Wilde had a sexual relationship – and about whom he was to be questioned at length in court six months later, after he sued Douglas’s father, the Marquess of Queensberry, for libel. This book tells for the first time the full story of the Worthing summer, set in the context of the three years of Wilde’s life before his downfall. The author devotes a chapter to the composition of – and influences on – Earnest, and also reassesses the trials, offering fresh insights into Wilde’s attitude to the youths with whom he was sexually involved. There are fifty-nine illustrations, including over thirty photographs of Worthing in Wilde’s time and three contemporary maps. |
Contents
You will come wont you? Bosie | |
A happy goodhumoured companion Alphonse | |
Noone to talk to Constance | |
My play is really very funny The Importance of Being Earnest | |
Absurd and silly perjuries The Dramatist in the Dock | |
Picture Section | 63 |
Other editions - View all
Oscar Wilde's Scandalous Summer: The 1894 Worthing Holiday and Its Aftermath Antony Edmonds No preview available - 2014 |
Oscar Wilde's Scandalous Summer: The 1894 Worthing Holiday and the Aftermath Antony Edmonds No preview available - 2015 |
Common terms and phrases
11 August 12 September 16 Tite Street Albion Alphonse Conway Alphonse's arrived in Worthing Arthur Humphreys boat Bosie Bosie's Brighton Road CARSON certainly CLARKE Complete Letters concert letter Constance Wilde Constance's Conway's criminal trial Delahay Dieppe Earnest Edward Carson Esplanade evidence father Fraser Georgina Mount Temple Haven homosexual Ideal Husband Irish Peacock Lady Mount Temple later left Worthing Lilley London Lord Alfred Douglas Marquess of Queensberry Merlin Holland Montgomery Hyde mother never October Oscar Wilde Oscar Wilde Fourth Oscariana Peacock & Scarlet perhaps photograph pier play prison probably Profundis Queensberry libel trial referred Richard Ellmann Sarah Conway scandal Scarlet Marquess seafront September 1894 servant sexual storm letter suggests Sussex Terrace Tite Street town Trials of Oscar Venetian Fete visit to Worthing Vyvyan Holland Wilde and Bosie Wilde Fourth Estate Wilde wrote Wilde’s Wildean Worthing Gazette Worthing holiday Worthing pier writing young