Ten years after its first publication, Ellmann's final work has grown in stature. Though unfinished at the time of his death in May 1987 and so without a final authorial polish, this biography is as balanced an examination as could be achieved of an original who was his own greatest invention.
No one could claim that Wilde is an easy subject, particularly as the scandal which destroyed him dominates the popular perception of a man who personified the contradictions of late Victorian society and was to fall victim to its hypocrisies. And so much of the Wildean legend is based on excess: the epigrams, outrageous wit, towering ego, extravagant gestures and the sheer folly of his association with Lord Alfred Douglas. Ellmann has often been accused of being too generous a biographer. Certainly, with a character as flamboyant and bizarrely appealing as Oscar Wilde, Ellmann's sympathy could have been a considerable liability. The strength of this narrative, however, lies in Ellmann's reading of the characters who surrounded Wilde. As for Wilde's own complex personality, Ellmann neither attempts to read his mind nor excuse the darker aspects of Wilde's behaviour. In fact, he is surprisingly neutral - after all, Wilde's difficulties did not begin with Queensberry's fury at his relationship with his son. Wilde's sense of doom developed early. His fascination with a dangerous love created his downfall, as did his theatrical, fatalistic sense of honour. Ellmann captures Wilde's strangely heroic grandeur and undoubted genius in a dignified study which will endure.
