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Out of Print
SPECIAL ANNIVERSARY EDITION
CHARACTER SKETCHES
CHARACTER SKETCHES
The National Portrait
Gallery's Character Sketches is a series of compact, fully illustrated,
historical guides to literary and artistic personalities and
themes. Written by well-known writers of today, they use images
from the Gallery's unique collection to examine the public and
the private faces, the lives, thoughts and relationships, both
artistic and personal, within each selected group.
Oscar Wilde and His Circle
Simon Callow
One of literature's most flamboyant and witty personalities,
the much-quoted Oscar Wilde captivated and scandalised late nineteenth-century
society in Europe and America.
Wilde was a pioneer of celebrity, whose friends and contemporaries
included Aubrey Beardsley, Lillie Langtry, James McNeill Whistler,
Sir Max Beerbohm and Ada Leverson. But Wilde is undoubtedly best
known for the circumstances of his love affair with Lord Alfred
Douglas ('Bosie'), and the subsequent libel case against Bosie's
father, the Marquess of Queensberry. The tragedy of Wilde's own
downfall and imprisonment has become one of the defining events
of the modern age; allied with his unsurpassed wit and the legacy
of his plays and writings, it has made him one of the most iconic
figures in literature. In this perceptive appraisal of Wilde
and his circle, Simon Callow brilliantly captures the spirit
of one of Britain's most celebrated but ultimately tragic literary
giants.
Author
Simon Callow is a writer, actor and director of international
standing. His books include Being and Actor (1995), Charles
Laughton: A Difficult Actor, Orson Welles (1995) and
Love is Where it Falls (1999)
166 x 121mm, 128 pages
27 illustrations, 13 in colour
£8.99 (hardback)
ISBN 1 85514 312 7
Click on our other titles in the award-winning Character
Sketches series!
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