HEMINGWAY FIRST NOVEL PRIZE Critical Comment: D.T. Max, New York Times Book Review: Exceptional, smart and playful, a novel of quiet seductions. An imagined correspondence between Wilde and the author that turns into a drama of cross-century friendship. Merlin Holland; author, grandson of Oscar Wilde:A charming read. Im sure Grandfather would have seen the fun of it. Hillary Hemingway; Director, Hemingway Literary Festival: What a delight to discover this unique voice. The novel is already the buzz of New York. Jill Jackson,Syndicated columnist, King Features:A brilliant correspondence, beautifully written and researched. Very funny stuff. Ellis Hanson, Author, Decadence & Catholicism:A style so conversational and amusing, it felt like Holloway was sitting at my dinner table. Postmodern parallels with Wilde abound theatre is transmogrified into TV commercials, rentboys into go-go types in a hustler bar, Reading Gaol into a psycho-prison for sexual outcasts. They make for interesting echoes and dissonances between decadence and post-modernism, aestheticism and camp, innuendo and outness, sex as gross indecency and sex as medical problem. Giovanna Franci,Professor of English, University of Bologna, Italy:What a wonderful concept! Beautifully realized! I couldnt put it down. LINER NOTES: In February of 1993, enroute from Capetown, South Africa to Los Angeles, during a lay-over at Londons Cadogan Hotel, C. Robert Holloway is convinced he witnessed the arrest of Oscar Wilde from the very room hes occupying. After badgering a reluctant night-manager, he learns that his room is indeed the same suite from which Wilde was ignominiously hauled away to Bow Street Police Station in April of 1895. Emboldened by a split of honor-bar rose and a chocolate rush, he drafts a letter to Wilde, at once part apology - part adulation - part exorcism and no small part jet-lagged foolishness. Next morning,he deposits it in a Piccadilly post-box, and shortly departs for California, never giving it a second thought. Two weeks later a thick envelope tumbles from Holloways mail-box in West Hollywood. Filling several pages, the flamboyant hand bears a strong resemblance to Wildes. Its authors observations on Holloways lineage and threadbare education are accurate enough to unnerve him, albeit momentarily. Thus begins an audacious, outrageous, occasionally trenchant, often hilarious correspondence between a little-known TV producion designer and the most famous gay man in the Western world.

Wilde’s Wiles: Studies of the Influences on Oscar Wilde and His Enduring Influences in the Twenty-First Century is a collection of essays which celebrates the diversity of Oscar Wilde’s genius. This unique collection of scholarship explores not only his influence on a broad spectrum of subjects including: aesthetics, children’s literature, women’s issues, consumer economics, queer theory, politics, theater, film, poetry, Victorianism and other aspects of culture such as pedagogical approaches to Wilde’s literature, but it also examines the influence of his family and friends on him. Wilde’s Wiles: Studies of the Influences on Oscar Wilde and His Enduring Influences in the Twenty-First Century includes a wide range of approaches and concentrations written by international experts and has a broad spectrum of subjects which will appeal to a diversity of scholars seeking original and alternative approaches to understanding Oscar Wilde. The multiplicity of interest in the topic of Oscar Wilde expands across genres, disciplines, cultures and time, this being the second century of Wilde scholarship since his untimely death in November 1900 preceding the fin-de siècle. The unique, multi-discipline approach of Wilde’s Wiles is organized in three sections: “Aesthetic Approaches,” “Friends and Family,” and “Performance and Pedagogy” and bridges philosophical, sociological, psychological, economic and literary disciplines.

While apprenticing backstage at Richard Wagners legendary Festival Theatre in Bayreuth, Germany, C. R. Holloway happens onto a handwritten note purporting to be from King Ludwig II. If real, its allegations are so slanderous, they would further stain Wagners and Ludwigs already sullied reputations, and outrage their descendents and admirers. Reluctant to inform anyone of his discovery, Holloway hides the note inside the lining of his luggage and, on returning home to Honolulu, stows it in a safety deposit box, hoping eventually to find time to verify its genesis and authenticity. Shortly, his Waikiki postman delivers a letter in which its writer demands the found note be destroyed immediately. Written in a hand identical to the original, it is signed by someone claiming to be Ludwig, himself! Soon, a series of revealing letters arrive from Ludwig in which he becomes increasingly more hostile toward Holloway and proportionately less self-recriminatory. Concurrent with the arrival of these letters, Holloways life takes a bizarre and disquieting turn that includes his phone being tapped, frequent nightmares and surprise visitors from Germany. All of which energizes his determination to return to Bavaria, surreptitiously investigate Ludwigs world and prowl his castles in search of the truth about the tortured life and mysterious death of The Mad King. While a paying guest of the Hohenlohes, a wealthy family of nobility in Munich, Holloway becomes involved with their nineteen-year-old son, Reiger, a strikingly handsome, moody, first year medical student. Their edgy relationship nearly gets the two of them killed. In the end, Holloways findings are sure to anger Wagnerian purists, infuriate Bavarian bureaucrats, startle keepers of Ludwigs flame and give tourists a new perspective while tramping through the Mad Kings Dream Castles.

On the evening of July 31, 1961, a horrifying incident took place atop the roof of one of Manhattan’s most iconic venues. Despite an intense investigation, covertly ordered by Mayor Robert Wagner, the motives for this bizarre event continued to baffle the authorities. Neither the EMS, the NYPD, the Investigative Detectives nor a team of Bellevue Psychiatrists could discover a credible explanation. After the recent death of one of its key figures, new and startling evidence was discovered among their personal effects. The author has been given exclusive access to those documents and by culling fact from fiction and painstakingly retracing nearly six decades of obfuscation, finally unravels the mystery in Swan Song.

After decades of avoiding, occasionally fearing cats, C. Robert Holloway adopts a rescue cat from the SPCA for the specific purpose of eradicating the rodent problem at his French Quarter apartment. In admiration for a friends cat named Charlie, he names him Charlie, Too but quickly realizes the Too is too cumbersome and, more bewildering, his critter has little inclination for killing any living creature, especially mice. This distressing trait is in high contrast to Charlies captivating, canine-like social skills and an IQ rivaling the US Navys dolphins. For the next seven years, Charlie and CRHs bonding coalesces in a determination to be together whenever possible, sharing eating and sleeping habits, learning each others language, mediating friends arguments, amalgamating political persuasions, even travelling together by plane and automobile across the USA. Early on in their relationship, Charlie demonstrates an inordinate fascination for CRHs laptop, frequently reaches for the delete button, and in the doing, makes valuable editorial contributions. Eventually he masters lifting the PCs lid and turning it on when CRH is away. When Charlie becomes gravely ill, CRH discovers his true age to be much older than originally listed by the SPCA. Distressed by concern and grief, he drags him to several Veterinary specialists in the area, while begging Charlie to hold on until his condition can be properly diagnosed and a cure might be found. Charlie rallies for a few months, then, just before Christmas, succumbs to cancer of the liver. Soon after his passing, C. Robert stumbles on a remarkable document which confirms the power of unconditional love, the jubilation that comes from unwavering responsibility, and, on closer reading, a poignant argument to give the concept of reincarnation another appraisal.

This study of Oscar Wilde updates and reconceptualizes the bibliographic objectives of Oscar Wilde Revalued, and surveys research on Wilde from 1992-2000 in a more explicitly evaluative manner.

Witty, inspiring, and charismatic, Oscar Wilde is one of the Greats of English literature. Today, his plays and stories are beloved around the world. But it was not always so. His afterlife has given him the legitimacy that life denied him. Making Oscar Wilde reveals the untold story of young Oscar's career in Victorian England and post-Civil War America. Set on two continents, this book tracks a larger-than-life hero on an unforgettable adventure to make his name and gain international acclaim. 'Success is a science,' Wilde believed, 'if you have the conditions, you get the result.' Combining new evidence and gripping cultural history, Michèle Mendelssohn dramatizes Wilde's rise, fall, and resurrection as part of a spectacular transatlantic pageant. With superb style and an instinct for story-telling, she brings to life the charming young Irishman who set out to captivate the United States and Britain with his words and ended up conquering the world. Following the twists and turns of Wilde's journey, Mendelssohn vividly depicts sensation-hungry Victorian journalism and popular entertainment alongside racial controversies, sex scandals, and the growth of Irish nationalism. This ground-breaking revisionist history shows how Wilde's tumultuous early life embodies the story of the Victorian era as it tottered towards modernity. Riveting and original, Making Oscar Wilde is a masterful account of a life like no other.

Covers some of the most studied and most popular writers in British literature. Authors covered include Jane Austen, Chaucer, Dickens, T. S. Eliot, Tom Stoppard, Oscar Wilde and others.

Includes the following works: Novels—The Portrait of Dorian Gray; Plays—Salome and The Importance of Being Earnest; Writings—De Profundis, Critic as Artist, and Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Very Young; and selections from Lady Windermere's Fan, An Ideal Husband, and A Woman of No Importance.

This anthology examines Love's Labours Lost from a variety of perspectives and through a wide range of materials. Selections discuss the play in terms of historical context, dating, and sources; character analysis; comic elements and verbal conceits; evidence of authorship; performance analysis; and feminist interpretations. Alongside theater reviews, production photographs, and critical commentary, the volume also includes essays written by practicing theater artists who have worked on the play. An index by name, literary work, and concept rounds out this valuable resource.