From Library Journal: In this lavishly illustrated volume, English historian and author Gardiner uses Wilde's own words to delineate his life and times. What emerges is a picture of a man whom William Butler Yeats described as "the greatest talker of all time." Gardiner highlights Wilde's advocacy of aestheticism, his "search after the signs of the beautiful," which led him to renounce his conventional lifestyle and become an active homosexual. The final third of the book focuses on Wilde's tumultuous relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas and the scandal that resulted when "Bosie's" father, the Marquess of Queensbury, attacked Wilde's way of life. The volume is beset by a number of mechanical problems-quotations from original sources are awkwardly incorporated into the author's sentences, punctuation is at times faulty, and transitions not always smooth. Nonetheless, the book provides a good overview of Wilde's life; Gardiner acknowledges Richard Ellman's biography (Oscar Wilde, LJ 12/87) as the "fullest life possible." Suitable for public libraries with general literature collections.-Denise J. Stankovics.
