He was afflicted already by the motorneurone disease from which he died in May of 1987. 24.95 Richard Ellmann completed the fifth or sixth, and last, draft of this massive biography (620 pages odd) early in 1986. This edition make the popular and best selling biography available in paperback for the first time. Book Reviews ELLMANNS OSCAR WILDE Richard Ellmann. In this major biography Oscar Wilde, the legendary Victorian - brilliant writer and. The tragic end of Wilde's life leaves the reader with a sense of compassion and grief for the protagonist. Ellmann’s biography, for so long the authoritative one, has very little to say about Conway and Grainger, neither of whom was a rent boy, and both of whom were very young. Oscar Wilde Ellmann, Richard Hamish Hamilton, 1988, Hardcover. After his period of success and daring, the fatal love affair with Lord Alfred Douglas is followed by exposure, imprisonment, a few wretched years abroad and death in exile. Ellmann's definitive critical account of Wilde's entire oeuvre shows him as the proponent of a radical new aesthetic who was perilously at odds with Victorian society. The London of the Nineties, of Whistler and the Pre-Raphaelites, Lillie Langtry and the Prince of Wales, is evoked alongside Paris of the 'belle epoque' and the Greece, Italy and North Africa of Wilde's travels. Oscar Wilde presentswithout limitation or special advocacythe whole of the artist. The saga of his 1882 American tour is recounted with a wealth of new details also his later impact on the bastions of the French literary establishment. Richard Ellmann’s biography has no subtitle and needs none. His Irish background, the actresses to whom he paid court, his unfortunate wife and lovers, his clothes, coiffures, and the decor of his rooms - all are presented here in vivid detail. Based on fresh material from many hitherto-untapped sources, Ellmann depicts Wilde's comet-like ascent on the Victorian scene and his equally dramatic sudden eclipse. More astute and forbearing, yet more fallible than legend has allowed, Wilde is given here the dimensions of a modern hero. In this long-awaited bioraphy, Wilde the legendary Victorian - brilliant writer and conversationalist, reckless flouter of social and sexual conventions - is brought to life.

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