The Wildes: A Novel in Five Acts

This is the tale of Oscar Wilde’s fall from grace and its disastrous consequences for him and his family. It unfolds in five acts, a prologue, and three parts between the acts, starting in 1892. Oscar’s wife Constance discovers his long-term affair with “Bosie,” Lord Alfred Douglas. She divorces him and takes her two sons with her. Oscar sues Bosie’s father for libel after he calls Oscar a pederast. Oscar loses and gets a two-year sentence. Once his imprisonment ends, he reunites with Bosie, not family. Soon after, Constance dies from a botched operation. In the decades that follow, neither of Oscar and Constance’s sons gets his life on track. By 1925, only one son, Vyvyan, is left. He encounters Lord Alfred in Soho; they talk. Bosie suggests things could have ended differently. The final act returns to 1892, when everything falls apart, narrating what could have happened, even though it didn’t.