Summary
Given the sublime recent reinventions of Henry James (by Colm Toibin and David Lodge) and Arthur Conan Doyle (by Julian Barnes), it's not a surprise to find another real-life writer recruited into the fictional ranks. But adopting Oscar Wilde as a protagonist is a riskier shift, particularly because Gyles Brandreth is inserting his hero into a detective fiction. In even the most conventional mystery, there's room for a louche hero: a sleuth who has a problem with the bottle -- or a blonde. But Wilde is a tough act to follow, let alone re-create.
Since his death in 1900, the great Irish wit has gone from depraved monster to martyr in the public eye, from a man with a wild appetite for rent boys to a victim of late-Victorian hypocrisy. But whatever improprieties he committed in life, Wilde's plays are regularly revived and his novel, "The Picture of Dorian Gray," is still read. And many would give anything to match even one of his maxims, let alone the thousands he seemed to toss off with ease.See the full content of this document
Extract
Engaging Whodunit Employs Famed Playwright As Sleuth
Wilde's waggish claim that "life imitates art far more than art imitates life" could have haunted Brandreth's myste...
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