Truly Wilde: The Unsettling Story of Dolly Wilde, Oscar's Unusual Niece

by Joan Schenkar

Paperback, 2001

Status

Available

Call number

941.082092

Publication

Da Capo Press (2001), 400 pages

Description

Born a scant three months after her uncle's notorious arrest and raised in the shadow of the greatest scandal of the turn of the twentieth century, Dorothy Irene Wilde was a born writer who never completed the the creative life promised by her famous name and gorgeous imagination. Dolly Wilde made her career in the salons - and the bedrooms - of some of London and Paris's most interesting women and men. Attracting people of taste and talent wherever she went, Dolly drenched her prodigious talents in liquids and chemicals, burnt up her opportunities in flamboyant affairs and created a sensation by apparently reliving the life of her infamous uncle. In this very modern biography, Joan Schenkar provides a fascinating look at what it means to live with the talents but not the achievements of biography's usual subjects. She aslo uncovers never-before-published evidence of the hidden life of the Wilde family and of the extraordianry salon society of Natalie Clifford Barney, Dolly Wilde's longest and most fatal attachment.… (more)

Media reviews

In Schenkar's unskilled hands, Dolly Wilde comes off as rather a bore, and that is the greatest injustice to her life. Her fabled ripostes die on the page. Perhaps it is a case of having to be there in order to appreciate the humor, but in this biography, Dolly is rarely witty, wild or Wildean.

User reviews

LibraryThing member jennybeast
Dear Joan Schenkar,

believe it or not, people who read biographies do anticipate a certain amount of imagining how things were. You don't need to tell us about it at length over and over again. The life of Dolly Wilde seems like it is full and fascinating -- lesbians, famous relatives, bewitching
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beauty and an unexplained death. How you've managed to make that boring is beyond me, but you sure did. Better luck next time.
Show Less

Awards

Lambda Literary Award (Nominee — 2000)

Language

Original language

English

Physical description

400 p.; 6 inches

ISBN

0306810794 / 9780306810794

Barcode

11366

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