The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde

The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde

First edition cover
Author Peter Ackroyd
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Publisher Hamish Hamilton
Publication date
April 1983
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN 978-0-241-10964-9

The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde is a 1983 novel by Peter Ackroyd. It won the Somerset Maugham Award[1] in 1984.

Plot summary

The novel is written in the form of a diary which Oscar Wilde 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, 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 jail. Included are fairy tales 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


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