Irish Peacock and Scarlet Marquess: The Real Trial of Oscar Wilde

Irish Peacock and Scarlet Marquess: The Real Trial of Oscar Wilde by Merlin Holland. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780007154180.

One of the most famous love affairs in literary history is that of Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Bosie Douglas. As a direct consequence of this relationship, Wilde underwent three trials in quick succession in 1895, marking the beginning of the end for his celebrated career. In the first, he sued the Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel for leaving his card at Wildes club on which had been written For Oscar Wilde posing sodomite. Wildes case collapsed on the third day, when Queensberrys counsel, Edward Carson started to introduce the evidence of young male prostitutes or renters, whom the defence had found in Londons homosexual underworld. Wilde was arrested the same evening and tried twice (the first ended in a hung jury) for gross indecency.