Biographer and editor Merlin Holland, the only grandson of Oscar Wilde, gives a lecture entitled “After Oscar: Wilde between the li(n)es.”

Holland is author of the recently published book After Oscar: the Legacy of a Scandal in which he shares more details regarding Wilde’s relationships, reputation and family history. In his talk, Holland will give an account of the extraordinary posthumous ‘life’ of Oscar Wilde, exploring many of the myths, exaggerations and inventions which have been created on his account for more than a century after his death. At the event, books will be available to purchase and have signed.

The Fund for Irish Studies Series is co-chaired by Jane Cox, Director of Princeton’s Program in Theater & Music Theater, and Robert Spoo, Princeton’s Leonard L. Milberg ’53 Professor in Irish Letters.

Merlin Holland, the only grandson of Oscar Wilde, is an author living in France. For the last forty years he has been researching his grandfather’s life and works and writes, lectures and broadcasts regularly on the subject. His publications include Irish Peacock and Scarlet Marquess, the first complete, verbatim record of the libel trial which ultimately brought Oscar Wilde to ruin and social disgrace, and The Wilde Album, a pictorial biography of Oscar Wilde which has now been translated into seven European languages. 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 and author of Conversations with Oscar Wilde, a series of imaginary conversations between Holland and his grandfather. He has just published an account of his grandfather’s ‘posthumous life’, After Oscar: the Legacy of a Scandal showing how Oscar has caused even more trouble dead than alive. It traces the extraordinary fluctuations in his reputation, the history of his surviving family and the quarrels between his friends and enemies for decades after his death. 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.

Tickets & Details

The event is free and open to the public. Free tickets are required through University Ticketing. There will be a wait line at the event to fill any empty seats.

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