Truly Wilde
The Story of Dolly Wilde, Oscar's Unusual Niece
Published on 6. September 2001
Book
Paperback/Softback
464 pages
978-1-86049-557-1 (ISBN)
Description
Born a scant three months after her uncle's notorious arrest and raised in the shadow of the greatest scandal of the turn of the twentieth century, Dorothy Irene Wilde was a born writer who never completed the the creative life promised by her famous name and gorgeous imagination. Dolly Wilde made her career in the salons - and the bedrooms - of some of London and Paris's most interesting women and men. Attracting people of taste and talent wherever she went, Dolly drenched her prodigious talents in liquids and chemicals, burnt up her opportunities in flamboyant affairs and created a sensation by apparently reliving the life of her infamous uncle. In this very modern biography, Joan Schenkar provides a fascinating look at what it means to live with the talents but not the achievements of biography's usual subjects. She aslo uncovers never-before-published evidence of the hidden life of the Wilde family and of the extraordianry salon society of Natalie Clifford Barney, Dolly Wilde's longest and most fatal attachment.
Reviews / Votes
At last Dolly Wilde has found a biographer with the intelligence, sensitivity and flamboyance to write the work of art that was her life DAILY TELEGRAPH It is Dolly's posthumous good fortune that Schenkar became intrigued by her...She was a beautiful loser, the book is an absolute winner Simon Callow, DAILY MAIL a fascinating account of a largely unexplored corner of High Bohemia between the wars SUNDAY TELEGRAPH Joan Schenkar has lifted a veil to reveal a sophisticated, overheated lesbian world in Paris in the first decade of the twentieth century. At the centre is Oscar Wilde's niece Dolly- self-destructive, self-dramatising, magnetic. This is a great story, be Edmund WhiteMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Little, Brown Book Group
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Illustrations
Section: 16, b&w
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 126 mm
Weight
385 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-86049-557-1 (9781860495571)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Joan Schenkar has been called America's most original female contemporary playwright'. Her works are produced, taught, read and reviewed across North America and Western Europe. She is the recipient of more than 40 grants, honours and awards. This is her first book.