Wilde's Women

Hailed as a gay icon and pioneer of individualism, Oscar Wilde's insistence that 'there should be no law for anybody' made him a staunch defender of gender equality. Throughout his life from his relationship to his extraordinary mother Jane and the tragedy of his sister Isola's early death to his accomplished wife Constance and a coterie of other free-thinking writers, actors and artists, women were a central aspect of his life and career.

Wilde's Women is the first book to tell the story of his female friends and colleagues who traded witticisms with Wilde but also give him access to vital publicity and whose ideas he gave expression through his social comedies.

Author Eleanor Fitzsimons reframes Wilde's story and his legacy through the women in his life including such fascinating figures as Florence Balcombe who left him for Bram Stoker, actress Lillie Langtry (for a while an inseparable friend) and his tragic and witty niece Dolly who bore a strong resemblance to the writer and loved fast cars, cocaine and foreign women. 

Full of fascinating detail and anecdotes Wilde's Women relates the untold story of how the writer played a vitally sympathetic role on behalf of many women and how they supported him in the midst of a Victorian society in the process of changing forever. 


***PRAISE FOR WILDE’S WOMEN***

‘A remarkable book... the breadth and depth of research is astonishing.’ Emma Thompson

‘Eleanor Fitzsimons is to be congratulated on finding a new and eminently profitable angle from which to approach him [Wilde]: the women who were so uncommonly significant in his life.’ Guardian

‘A refreshing approach to a familiar life story - an approach which could profitably be taken with other literary figures, who have been judged, generally speaking, by their relationships with men.' TLS

‘An illuminating study of Oscar Wilde's life... Fitzsimons does a fascinating job of reminding us that it wasn't just the men in Wilde's life that raised him up and brought him down, but that this troupe of exceptional women played their part too.’ Independent

‘I adored this book. It’s a fascinating, readable account and is stunningly well written.’ Irish Examiner