The Wildes

July 22, 2024
In this inspired outing, Bayard (Jackie & Me) explores the effects of Oscar Wilde’s gay affair and 1895–1897 imprisonment on his family. The story begins in 1892 Norfolk, England, a period Bayard dubs “the before times,” where the Wildes have rented a house for the summer. Oscar’s lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, known as Bosie, arrives for an extended stay. Oscar’s wife, Constance, is initially oblivious to the true nature of his and Bosie’s friendship. Throughout her own relationship with Oscar, she has grown accustomed to him being the focus of others’ attention, but has remained convinced he only has eyes for her. That illusion evaporates as the two men spend increasing amounts of time together and she learns Oscar is giving Bosie money. After Bosie’s father puts a stop to the affair by accusing Oscar of being a “sodomite,” leading to his conviction for gross indecency, Constance attempts a fresh start in Italy. Later sections follow the couple’s elder son, Cyril, who fights in the trenches during WWI; and his brother, Vyvyan, who has an awkward reunion with Bosie in 1925. In a moving conclusion, Constance speculates on how she might have protected Oscar from the authorities back in 1892. Bayard’s superior gifts at evoking the past are on full display, and he makes it easy for readers to sympathize with his characters. Historical fiction fans will love this poignant tale.

Starred review from August 1, 2024
Bayard's fictional vision of the Oscar Wilde scandal in 1890s England focuses on what the playwright's choices, successes, and scandals cost innocent bystanders--particularly his family. Fittingly, this bittersweet tragicomedy full of bad manners is structured like a Wilde play. The long first act, set on a Norfolk farm rented by the Wildes during the summer of 1892--three years before Oscar's infamous court cases--focuses on Constance Wilde's discovery of Oscar's physical relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas. Both Wildes skirt around what they know is happening with verbal wit, their spiritual intimacy and mutual affection as obvious as Oscar's self-destructive passion for the charming narcissist, eternally boyish Alfred. Despite Oscar's entreaties, the deeply hurt Constance departs Norfolk without him although the marriage limps along (a situation reminiscent of the Kennedy marriage in Bayard'sJackie & Me, 2022). The novel is concerned less with the historical facts of what happened next--Oscar's failed libel suit against Alfred's father and resulting incarceration for sodomy--than with the human fallout. The following acts concern Constance's short, unhappy life after moving abroad to hide herself and her children from the ugly publicity, and then how each of the Wildes' two sons, so intensely beloved in early childhood by both parents, ends up psychologically damaged in adulthood. Sexuality matters less in this telling than broader issues of sexual ethics, loyalty, and conformity. Oscar's sexual orientation is less important than his selfishness, pride, weakness, and capacity for abiding love. As she grapples with her own sexual yearnings and sense of self-worth, Constance, an intellectual and supporter of women's rights, is upset by Oscar's loss of desire for her--their marriage began with mutual physical attraction--as much as by whom he desires instead. The truth is heartbreaking, but Bayard's fifth act offers an implausible but satisfying solution Wilde himself might have written to send the audience home smiling. Bayard turns the Wilde family's tragedy into an engrossing, eternally relevant fable of fame, scandal, and love.

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Starred review from August 1, 2024
As befits a novel about one of literature's most astute, witty, and persecuted playwrights, Bayard structures his poignant portrayal of Oscar Wilde as a drama in five acts, complete with interludes. In the prelude to and aftermath of the sexual scandal that sent Wilde to prison, his wife, Constance, and sons Cyril and Vyvyan walk the tightrope of loving a genius while turning a blind eye to the flaws that inform and inspire his work. When the family escapes London for a farm cottage in rural Norfolk, Constance believes her marriage to be solid if unconventional. The appearance of Lord Alfred Douglas slowly alerts her to the reality of her husband's sexuality. When Wilde is jailed, the family, disgraced and impoverished, lives in exile. WWI ensnares Cyril who, as a child, witnessed his family's dissolution. Vyvyan, as the sole survivor, struggles to understand and accept his family's fate. Scandal knows no century nor season; historically, its villains and victims remain tragically entwined. Bayard considers these themes through dialogue as crackling as any Wilde himself would write and unfolds the Wilde family's story with the same attention to conflict and resolution as Wilde's legendary plays.

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August 30, 2024

The latest from best-selling Bayard (author of Jackie and Me and the Netflix-adapted The Pale Blue Eye) is set against the backdrop of Victorian England and World War I as he considers the lives of Oscar Wilde's family (his wife, Constance, and their two sons) after Wilde's affair with Lord Alfred Douglas was exposed and he was imprisoned for homosexuality. Prepub Alert.

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