title: Oscar Wilde: The Unrepentant Years
author:  Nicholas Frankel 
description: [A] detailed and finely judged account of Wildes life after prison.<b><i></i></b><b>Colm Tibn</b><b>, </b><b><i>The Guardian</i></b><br /><br />[A] fascinating study of the hitherto largely neglected last phase of Wildes life[A] quiet but persuasively revisionist account.<b><i></i></b><b>John Banville</b><b>, </b><b><i>New York Review of Books</i></b><br /><br />[Frankels] purpose is to refute the traditional view of Wilde ending as a broken martyr, a victim of hypocritical Victorian moralityWhile the pages in which Wilde tries to touch for a handout anyone he knew make for painful reading, the rest of Frankels history is scintillating enough. The quotes from Wildes sayings and writings sparkle, defiantly undimmed.<b><i></i></b><b>John Simon</b><b>, </b><b><i>Weekly Standard</i></b><br /><br />[A] fair, elegant and informed book.<b><i></i></b><b>Douglas Murray</b><b>, </b><b><i>The Times</i></b><br /><br />DazzlingPresents a Wilde quite different from the despondent has-been, ruined by Lord Alfred Bosie Douglas.<b><i></i></b><b>Kate Hext</b><b>, </b><b><i>Times Literary Supplement</i></b><br /><br />Examines in fascinating detail Wildes prison years and the short time that remained to him after he completed his sentenceThe clarity of [Frankels] prose, his sympathetic approach, and his talent for building tension ensures that his book will appeal to anyone with even a passing knowledge of Wildes life.<b><i></i></b><b>Eleanor Fitzsimons</b><b>, </b><b><i>Irish Times</i></b><br /><br />Frankels Wilde is resilient and defiantand also wily Frankel takes issue with Richard Ellmann and other Wilde biographers who suggest prison ended Wildes literary career Wilde did not emerge from his cell a dull man. He spoke as brilliantly as ever, Frankel reports Taken together, [this book and Laura Lees <i>Oscars Ghost</i>] are complementary, enriching not only an understanding of Wildes life and work, but of how biographies get made and unmade as new evidence comes to light, and different forms of interpretation are brought to bear on contested stories.<b><i></i></b><b>Carl Rollyson</b><b>, </b><b><i>New Criterion</i></b><br /><br />Frankels Wilde is human, real, and didactic. The focus on Wilde the prisoner and lover humanizes him Frankel is an extraordinary textual scholar who gave us the best recent edition of <i>Dorian Gray</i> Throughout <i>The Unrepentant Years</i>, he cites Wildes published letters, draws from global archives, and invokes intertextual references across a matrix of virtually everyone in his post-prison life. Yet this is no dry academic exercise. Frankel weaves the information into a story about a man who remains a hero. Copious notes are useful for readers who want more, but the text is thoroughly accessible In reclaiming the final years, Frankel has recovered the man and redefined his legacy.<b><i></i></b><b>Frederick S. Roden</b><b>, </b><b><i>Gay and Lesbian Review</i></b><br /><br />Takes the story of Wildes demise and turns it on its head[An] excellent bookIf Frankel is right [Wilde] was even more extraordinary than we previously imaginedFrankels achievement is in challenging us to rethink a legend we thought we knew so well.<b><i></i></b><b>Alex Dean</b><b>, </b><b><i>Prospect</i></b><br /><br />Frankel offers a scholarly and generally level-headed account of Wilde's civil and criminal trials, his imprisonment, his exile in northern France and Italy, and his final squalid end in ParisThe period Frankel particularly wants to unpack is Wilde's final three years of life following his release. In Richard Ellmann's acclaimed biography of Wilde this period is given rather short shrift, so Frankels book will remain the definitive reference on this era for a long time, particularly on where, when and with whom Wilde spent his final 36 months[A] compelling book.<b><i></i></b><b>Adrian McKinty</b><b>, </b><b><i>The Australian</i></b>
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  OSCAR WILDE
  
  
  THE UNREPENTANT YEARS
  
  
  ______
  
  
  Nicholas Frankel
  
  
  ![](../images/HUP_Vertical_OneLine_B_fmt.svg)![](../images/HUP_Vertical_OneLine_B_fmt.jpeg)
  
  
  
  
  
  Cambridge, Massachusetts
  
  
  London, England
  
  
  2017
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Copyright © 2017 by Nicholas Frankel
  
  
  All rights reserved
  
  
  Text of Wilde’s letters and of _De Profundis_ © the Estate of Vyvyan Holland
  1962, renewed 1990.
  
  
  Extracts from Lord Alfred Douglas’s unpublished works © 2017 John Rubinstein
  and John Stratford—Literary Executors of the Estate of Lord Alfred Bruce
  Douglas—all rights reserved.
  
  
  Cover photo by Roger Viollet Collection | Getty Images
  
  
  Cover design by Lisa Roberts
  
  
  978-0-674-73794-5 (alk. paper)
  
  
  978-0-674-98202-4 (EPUB)
  
  
  978-0-674-98203-1 (MOBI)
  
  
  978-0-674-98201-7 (PDF)
  
  
  The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
  
  
  Names: Frankel, Nicholas, 1962– author.
  
  
  Title: Oscar Wilde : the unrepentant years / Nicholas Frankel.
  
  
  Description: Cam