Reviews for The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde: An Intimate Biography

The average rating for The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde: An Intimate Biography based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-11-19 00:00:00 Sofia Riska A bit of a slog, to be honest. I love Oscar's writing, but if this book is any indication, wouldn't have cared for him as an individual. It suffers from two major flaws: firstly, repetition (yes, he was a habitual user of Oxonian undergraduates and renters, we've got the message) and secondly, blithe acceptance of unacceptable behaviour. I realise it's a mistake to judge by our standards, but I found Oscar's cold hearted neglect of his wife and family unforgivable. McKenna also seems to be dazzled by Oscar's 'one true love' Bosie, who was not only the most wretched, spoilt little bitch any great man wasted his time on, but strongly implied to be a paedophile (at one point he has designs on Oscar's nine year old son!) I soon became very tired of reading yet another "exquisite sonnet" by Bosie that was anything but. The best parts of the book deal with Oscar's writing, particularly when examined from a "Uranian" perspective, and assorted gay scandals (I hadn't been aware of Francis Douglas's love affair with the Prime Minister before). The villain of the piece, "the scarlet Marquis", is feelingly invoked- how dare such a grotesque man set himself up as a guardian of public morals? But the book was such a confused, overwritten hotchpotch, smiling upon such dubious morals, it was a chore to get through and I'm thoroughly relieved to have finished it. Indeed, I'll probably have to read Oscar's oeuvre again to have my confidence in him restored.

Review # 2 was written on 2010-12-29 00:00:00 Donald Steirer So. This is exactly the biography of Oscar Wilde I would write if I were to uh, write one. It focuses on the important questions like, "Whom did he have sex with, maybe?" and "Whom did his friends have sex with, maybe?" No matter if in answering these questions he uses the most questionable sources, for example Trelawny Backhouse, who in addition to claiming all sorts of salacious things about Oscar Wilde and Bosie also claimed to have had sex with the Empress of China. Frankly, if there was anything, anything that had to do with Oscar Wilde and homosexuality and I was writing a book on Oscar Wilde and homosexuality, I would go ALL OUT, too and just put everything I could find in there. If I found out that some guy had sent letters to Oscar and later Oscar had dinner with him then I am writing that, yeah, maybe they had sex, okay? All in the effort to answer the biggest, most important question: "Just how much of a flaming queen was Oscar Wilde?" because the answer is girl, the man was OSCAR WILDE, you could make up all sorts of shit and it wouldn't come close.