Danaher Books

This book presents original archival findings concerning Wilde’s membership of a Liberal Party club and his views on Irish Home Rule. The findings have significant implications for our understanding of his attitude to Irish nationalism and British politics, and help us interpret political allusions in his writings.

Wright and Kinsella tell the intriguing story of Wilde’s eight-year membership of the Eighty Club, which spanned the years 1887-1895. Their vivid account of the political events Wilde attended and the speeches he made reveals his extensive connections among the English (and Irish) Westminster elite. These contacts were not enough to save Wilde from imprisonment, however - in fact, his 1895 conviction was facilitated by several high-ranking Eighty Club members who knew him well, and who may have wanted to protect the reputation of their club and party by prosecuting him. ’True friends’, as Wilde probably didn’t say, ’always stab you in the front.’

Wilde famously ’lived more lives than one’, and had myriad personalities. This book reveals a little-known Wilde - the political activist. It suggests that his legendary ’negative capability’ (i.e. his artistic capacity for appreciating all sides of a question, and dislike of taking them) was not extended into politics. His convictions were strong, and they were strongly (even earnestly) held. In our own era of political polarisation, we are perhaps well-placed to understand this unfamiliar aspect of Wilde’s life and character.

This attractive, 100-page hardback, designed by Rob Marland, offers an extended version of Wright and Kinsella’s 2015 Oscholars essay on Wilde’s politics, which was described by Richard Haslam as a ’key work’ (The Wildean) and by Jarlath Killeen as ’a good summary of what we know of [Wilde’s] straightforward support for Home Rule’ (Irish Studies Review).