Oscar Wilde: Myths, Miracles and Imitations

Oscar Wilde was a major influence on the culture of his time, and remains relevant today, as a model of wit and style, a sexual icon, and a moral example. In a sequence of detailed and imaginative chapters on Wilde and his times, John Stokes shows how in the 1880s and 1890s Wilde played a vital part in the development of modern culture, inspiring others to carry his ideas on into the twentieth century. Stokes offers studies of Wilde’s place in the Romantic tradition, and of his relationships with such legendary figures of the fin-de-siecle as Aubrey Beardsley, Alfred Jarry, and Arthur Symons. And always, as part of the process of historical enquiry, Stokes considers those who came after: humanitarian disciples who kept Wilde’s memory sacred, performers in his plays, actors who impersonated the man himself. Oscar Wilde: Myths, Miracles and Imitations explains why Wilde, a ‘material ghost’, haunts us still.