Recently I read yet another article about the ‘martyrdom’ of OW. It seems people are more interested in his (presumed) sexuality than his creativity save for the fairly regular staging of his two best loved plays. This is unfortunate because Wilde has a great deal more to offer.
For the record Wilde was persuaded by Lord Alfred Douglas to sue the Marquis of Queensbury (Douglas’s father) for criminal libel. Wilde’s friends, knowing where this might lead, begged him not to. Queensbury was found not guilty. Wilde’s friends begged him to leave the country. Wilde ignored this advice, was prosecuted, tried and convicted. Read Wilde’s own version of events in De Profundis. In itself a remarkable piece of writing which leaves the reader wondering why he chose to act in the way he did.
