I've recorded an audiobook of Lord Alfred “Bosie” Douglas’s first memoir about his relationship with Oscar Wilde. As you might expect, it’s a 310 page / 7 hour 20 minute diatribe against Wilde and against Douglas’s myriad enemies, real or perceived.
Oscar Wilde and Myself was written 14 years after the death of Wilde and in the aftermath of Douglas’s failed prosecution of Arthur Ransome for libel. Ransome, in his Oscar Wilde, a Critical Study, had quoted from the expurgated portions of Wilde’s prison letter to Douglas, De Profundis, which was highly critical of his former friend and lover. Having failed to convince a jury that he had been libelled, Douglas appealed instead to posterity by writing his memoir. In it he refutes Wilde’s version of the events that led to his (Wilde’s) imprisonment and takes swipes at Ransome, Wilde’s friend Robert Ross, other biographers of Wilde, and Wilde’s overzealous imitators. He also critiques Wilde’s writing and character and concludes that the Irish playwright will soon be forgotten.
Download and listen to Oscar Wilde and Myself for free at Librivox.org. You can find a list of all my Wilde related audiobooks on my website.
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