A Wilde Wait

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I can’t wait for Oscar Wilde: A Life by Matthew Sturgis to be released in the United States this fall. It will be published in time for his birthday (October 16) and mine. We were born two days apart - give or take 123 years. We’re a couple of clever Libras.

Alas, my horoscope said nothing about winning an advanced copy, though, so fate was not in my favor. Alfred A. Knopf, the American publishing house, posted the following on its Instagram giveaway contest:

“OSCAR WILDE: A LIFE by Matthew Sturgis is the fullest, most textural, most accurate, and most human account of Oscar Wilde’s unique and dazzling life! 📖✨
We have a very limited number of advanced copies for this book, and we want to give one lucky reader a chance to dive into its gorgeous, extensively researched pages before it’s published October 12th!”

I want to delve into learning about his “unique and dazzling life,” but I can be patient. After all, Oscar Wilde offered expert advice on the virtue of restraint when he wrote, “I can resist everything except temptation.” So, I’m going to dive into Mr. Sturgis’ research before I get the actual book itself.

Wildeana : A Compendium Of Previously Ungathered Anecdotes, Epigrams, Asides, And Accounts, selected with an introduction by Matthew Sturgis, was published a year ago. It is described as containing “fascinating new discoveries” that were brought to light by Mr. Sturgis through research that he conducted to write Oscar Wilde: A Life. It is available now and I am ordering as I write this.

I’m also continuing to scour the internet for articles, reviews, podcasts, etc. about the book. For example, I read a book review in The Guardian by Anthony Quinn (a writer and not the late movie star). The following sentence struck me as a beautifully written explanation of why many, including myself, find Wilde fascinating. “But then so much of Wilde’s life does read like a novel, with its crowded social fresco, its careful pacing of highs and lows, its entrances and exits, its destiny waltz of hubris and nemesis – and, at the centre, its dazzling protagonist.”

Have you read Oscar Wilde: A Life? What did you think? What upcoming Irish books are you excited to read? Let me know in the comments and I will keep you updated about my quest to get my hands on his biography.