The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde
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Author | Peter Ackroyd |
---|---|
Language | English |
Publisher | Hamish Hamilton |
Publication date | April 1983 |
Publication place | United Kingdom |
Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
ISBN | 978-0-241-10964-9 |
The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde is a 1983 novel by Peter Ackroyd. It won the Somerset Maugham Award[1] in 1984.
Plot summary
[edit]The novel is written in the form of a diary which Oscar Wilde was writing in Paris in 1900, up to his death. The diary itself is completely fictional, as is the detail contained, although the events and most of the characters (such as the characters of Lord Alfred Douglas, Robert Ross and the Earl of Rosebery and his incarceration, at Pentonville, later Reading) are real. In this diary he looks back at his life, writing, and ruin through trial and gaol. Included are fairy tales much like those Wilde wrote, although again these are wholly Ackroyd's invention. The last pages are written in the character of Maurice, Wilde's valet.
References
[edit]- ^ O'Mahony, John (2 July 2004). "Profile: Peter Ackroyd". The Guardian.
External links
[edit]- Ukko Hänninen: Rewriting Literary History: Peter Ackroyd and Intertextuality Archived 10 September 2019 at the Wayback Machine
- 1983 British novels
- Fictional diaries
- Cultural depictions of Oscar Wilde
- Fiction set in 1900
- Novels set in the 1900s
- 1980s LGBTQ novels
- Novels set in Paris
- Novels by Peter Ackroyd
- Hamish Hamilton books
- British LGBTQ novels
- Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery
- 1980s novel stubs
- LGBTQ novel stubs
- Epistolary novel stubs