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Article: Wit's End: Oscar Wilde's Downfall
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- January 24, 1988
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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OSCAR WILDE
By Richard Ellmann
Knopf. 630 pp. $24.95
ON FEBRUARY 28, 1895, the author of The Importance of Being
Earnest, London's newest hit comedy, scribbled in pencil an anguished
note to his friend Robert Ross. "Dearest Bobbie, Since I saw you
something has happened. Bosie's father has left a card at my club
with hideous words on it. I don't see anything now but a criminal
prosecution. My whole life seems ruined by this man. . . . I don't
know what to do."
"Bosie" was the pretty and amoral Lord Alfred Douglas; his
father the bellicose Marquess of Queensberry, who had established the
rules for boxing. On the calling card-left 10 days earlier at the
Albemarle Club-were the words, with ...