In conversation with Edward O’Keefe, moderated by Mary Lynn Becza at Presbyterian Church Parish House, 1:20 pm to 2:10 pm
About the author
Louis Bayard is the critically acclaimed best-selling author of nine historical novels, including Jackie & Me, Courting Mr. Lincoln, and The Pale Blue Eye, which was adapted into the global #1 Netflix release starring Christian Bale. His articles, reviews and recaps have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Salon and The Paris Review. His work has been translated into more than a dozen languages.
MFOB featured book: The Wildes
Oscar Wilde is renowned for his novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, his hilarious comedies of manners, his wit and flamboyance, and, perhaps most notably, his prison sentence for committing homosexual acts with the young aristocratic poet, Lord Alfred Douglas. What is much less known is that he was a devoted husband to his wife, Constance, and father of two sons, Cyril and Vyvyan. In The Wildes: A Novel in Five Acts, Louis Bayard returns with his usual narrative flair to unfold the captivating tale of Wilde’s family, navigating through the turbulent waves of Victorian England and the harrowing trenches of World War I. “What was lost to history Louis Bayard has brilliantly brought to life: the wit, charm, tragedy and tenderness of Wilde’s family. Wonderfully researched, beautifully crafted, movingly told, The Wildes is a treasure to read,” says Pulitzer Prize-winning author Andrew Sean Greer.
With precision and empathy, Bayard brings Constance Wilde, a formidable intelligence in her own right, out of the shadows of history, and brilliantly captures her discovery of Wilde’s relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas during a family holiday to the Norfolk countryside. He portrays the evolving relationship between Wilde and the enigmatic Lord Douglas, and then deftly explores the consequences of Wilde’s imprisonment for homosexuality, a societal condemnation that sends ripples through all of their lives. Structured ingeniously into five acts, this book is a vivid portrait of the exile of the Wilde family, the battlefield experiences of Cyril, and Vyvyan’s quest for answers in the aftermath of the war. It culminates in a brilliant act of the imagination, reuniting all of the characters in a tableau that is as surprising as it is moving.
