''The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde'' is a

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

novel by Peter Ackroyd. It won the Somerset Maugham Award in 1984.

Plot summary

The novel is written in the form of a diary which

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

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 Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas (22 October 1870 – 20 March 1945), also known as Bosie Douglas, was an English poet and journalist, and a lover of Oscar Wilde. At Oxford he edited an undergraduate journal, ''The Spirit Lamp'', that carried a homoer ...

, 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 A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful beings. In most cult ...

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

External links

Ukko Hänninen: Rewriting Literary History: Peter Ackroyd and Intertextuality
1983 British novels Fictional diaries Cultural depictions of Oscar Wilde Fiction set in 1900 Novels set in the 1900s 1980s LGBT novels Novels set in Paris Novels by Peter Ackroyd Hamish Hamilton books British LGBT novels Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery {{1980s-epistolary-novel-stub