Description:
The Millions Most Anticipated Books of 2026
Written by Oscar Wilde's only grandson, After Oscar recounts the gripping story of Wilde and his enduring legacy.
"Fascinating...A magnificent blend of scholarship and memoir and a vital contribution to Wildeana."--Stephen Fry, actor and author
Oscar Wilde died in November 1900, exiled in Paris, his reputation in tatters, exhausted by scandal and prison life. While the details of his life in the limelight are well known, often ignored are the reverberations of the Wilde scandal over the decades following his trial and death.
With pathos, humor, and his grandfather's signature wit, Merlin Holland charts the extraordinary afterlife of the legendary writer and thinker, tracing the dramatic fluctuations in Wilde's posthumous reputation.
A true feat of storytelling and scholarship, After Oscar documents decades of sensationalist conjecture surrounding the Wilde family and exposes a century of bigotry and hypocrisy within the cultural establishment. Here is a book that will amuse, infuriate, fascinate, and shock. Readers beware--you're in for a Wilde ride.
Brief description:
Merlin Holland, the grandson of Oscar Wilde, is an author living in France. His publications include Irish Peacock and Scarlet Marquess, the first complete, verbatim record of the libel trial which ultimately brought Wilde to ruin, and The Wilde Album, a pictorial biography of Oscar Wilde. He is also the co-editor of The Complete Letters of Oscar Wilde as well as the editor of an abridged and commentated version of Oscar's letters, Oscar Wilde: a Life in Letters.
After Oscar's conviction in 1895, his wife, Constance, and their two sons were forced to move abroad and change their name to Holland. The family has never reverted to the name Wilde.
Review Quotes:
★ "Holland's tireless investigation debunks myths and lies, and reveals hypocrisy and homophobia among the British upper classes... A lively, richly detailed narrative."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Holland is understandably an expert on Oscar Wilde, as he is also his grandson. Here, he undertakes an act of filial and literary reclamation, turning his gaze from the incandescent genius of Oscar Wilde to the long, quieter shadow that followed.... The result is a quietly powerful mosaic of human responses to tragedy."--Booklist
"Fascinating...A magnificent blend of scholarship and memoir and a vital contribution to Wildeana."--Stephen Fry, actor and author
"As gripping as a thriller and as full of human drama as one of Wilde's plays."--The Times (Book of the Week)
"Written with an engaging combination of wit, personal candour and scholarly rigour...Wilde's afterlife remains almost as rich and entertaining as his life."--The Guardian (Book of the Day)
"Oscar Wilde deserves a work of genius. Now he has one."--Gyles Brandreth, broadcaster and writer
"No one touches Merlin Holland in his reach, his knowledge and his authority. He manages the balance between the historical, the literary and the personal with tremendous skill. A wonderful achievement."--David Hare, playwright and screenwriter
"Extraordinarily gripping...This is a work of familial love and loyalty."--The Standard
"A captivating record--charting the rise, fall, and rise again of a literary legend."--Buzz Magazine
"A monumental undertaking...Utterly engrossing."--The Irish Examiner
"Holland makes a valuable addition to Wilde scholarship."--Publishers Weekly
"After Oscar is ostensibly a record of the vicissitudes of Wilde's posthumous reputation. But it ends up being something much more interesting: an account of what happens to the people left living with a scandal they did not create."--The Economist