The Wildes: A Novel in Five Acts

In his novel «The Wildes» renowned American writer Louis Bayard lifts the veil on one of the most dramatic episodes of the late 19th-century art world—the imprisonment of Oscar Wilde for homosexuality.
In 1892, the celebrated writer Oscar Wilde arrives for a holiday in picturesque Norfolk with his wife, Constance, and one of their sons. They are joined by the young Lord Alfred Douglas, and Constance soon notices that her husband's heart no longer belongs to her. The affair with Douglas leads to Wilde's imprisonment and the complete ruin of his family. Through exile, hardship, and the years of the First World War, the writer's wife and sons search for answers to difficult questions. Louis Bayard offers a poignant account of their lives and pain, inviting us to look closely at their destinies to better understand the figure of Oscar Wilde himself.