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Ellmann's definitive critical account of Wilde's writings early and late shows him as the tireless proponent of a radical new aesthetic, personally at odds with a society not yet ready for him. After his period of success and daring, society has its revenge: the fatal love affair with Lord Alfred Douglas is followed by exposure, imprisonment, a few wretched years abroad, death in exile. The end of Wilde's life is a tragedy, and few readers will finish this long, rich, compassionately commited book without a sense of gift and outrage, and intense sympathy for its protogonist.
Richard Ellmann has, without doubt, written one of the most masterly biographies of recent decades.