The Wildes is an intimate look into the aftermath of being married to one of the most famous libertines of all time. How does one overcome the betrayal? The gossip, the hurt? This book delves into the aftermath of Oscar Wilde's downfall and imprisonment and how she picks up the pieces for herself and her sons.

I don’t know much about Oscar Wilde so this book appealed. I struggled to get into it. I liked Constance; her love for her boys but also her candor about motherhood and marriage. The structure of the book had me thinking Stage Left all the time, which I suppose was the point. I didn’t like the excerpts in between the acts and found the whole thing very clunky and disorientating.
Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

In 1895, Oscar Wilde was perhaps the most famous man in England. His plays, essays, and very witty self delighted the British and most of the English-speaking world. He was an aesthete, someone who affected a special appreciation of art and beauty--which was often seen as a sign of queerness, illegal in England at the time. But Wilde was okay! He had a wife and children he obviously adored. so he was just pretending, until . . .

"The Wildes, A Novel is Five Acts" purports to cover the aftermath of Wilde's trial and imprisonment and its impact on his wife and two sons. It's an aching story because of the love that existed within the family. His wife, Constance, understood her husband and tried to come to an agreement that would keep her and her sons safe while allowing Oscar his relationships with men. That all blew up with Wilde's obsession with Lord Alfred Douglas, his lawsuit against Douglas' father, and Wilde's trial and imprisonment. Constance and the boys fled England, they changed their last names and Cyril and Vyvyan were sent to far-flung boarding schools where no one would know them.

This part of Wilde's story is rarely covered, the trauma this caused for his sons who loved him so much and the early death of Constance. His sons never saw him again after he went to prison.

This is a compelling novel but probably would have been better without claiming to be about the "aftermath" of Wilde's life. The five acts are not well defined and one act runs into the other. A large chunk of the story takes place in the fall of 1892 when a young poet named "Bosie" Douglas joins the Wilde family on vacation in the English countryside, Perhaps structure the story as the "dissolution" beginning then. But "The Wildes" does something important--we see more revisionist stories where Victorian gay people are accepted or even embraced. Here we see how harsh the laws against homosexuality was and how even fame could not protect you if you were in the spotlight. The brutal punishment, and the disgrace. of the family were the norm, not the exception. Queer people were terrified of being "caught." The stakes were high.

Thanks to Algonquin Books and NetGalley for a digital review copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

In his book about Mary Todd Lincoln and his book about Jackie Kennedy, Louis Bayard explored the lives of women who were partnered with men who could or would not give themselves wholly to the marriage. This could be because of ambition, because of flaws of character, or because these men were queer and divided in their affections. I think that most people are familiar with Oscar Wilde- an ambitious, brilliant queer man whose sometimes dubious judgement in love got him thrown in prison and financially ruined. Before this book, I knew nothing about Wilde's family: his wife Constance and his children Cyril and Vyvyan. This book inspired me to do a lot of googling.

A good deal of the book is a comedy of manners. You can see that Bayard summoned the ghost of Wilde to etch the emotional temper of the Wildes and their houseguests- he's got great skill with dialogue and has the ability to delicately convey unspoken meaning. Constance, as with so many of the women Bayard has written about, is portrayed with empathy and admiration. She was perhaps wilfully blind to her husband's ways but it's hard to blame her. She was suffering from health issues and admitting that her husband was conducting an affair under her nose would set in motion a disaster from which there could be no return. So underneath all the comedy is an undercurrent of despair and tragedy.

In this case the acts of the father had deep repercussions upon his children. We get parts of this book from the POV of Cyril as a sniper in the trenches of WWI and of Vyvyan in the mid twentieth century, struggling along in his lonely life. Again, Bayard's dialogue is flawless, his humor cutting.

Aa per usual in Bayard's books, the great man himself is set to the side. He's a character but although his actions drive the story, he himself is a bit of a cipher. He isn't seen to be as important in the book as the people who are affected by his actions.

At the end of the book, the author allows himself to imagine what might have happened if things had worked out differently. What if Constance had risen above her circumstances and dared the unconventional solution? Bayard seems to long for a happy ending for his characters. If society hadn't criminalized homosexuality, if Wilde hadn't counted on his wits to save himself, if Wilde's lover hadn't been such a git, everyone might have had a gentler ending. But I don't think it's fair to put the entire burden for the solution on Constance, who was already dealing with so much. Why is it always the women, who have the least power in these situations, who must save everyone else?


READING PROGRESS

This book was terribly sad. While it was a fictionalized account (based on historical fact, one presumes), I found it very enlightening to contemplate what happened to Wilde from his family's perspective. Shamefully, I'd never thought about how the scandal must have affected them -- and I now see his lawsuit against the Marquis of Queensbury as terribly selfish -- and awfully stupid. My attitude was always "oh, those terrible Victorians; how they persecuted that man" -- which is certainly true. But his family had to change their name & hide out to escape censure for HIS transgression. I had also not known that his wife suffered from an illness -- which sounded like it might have been MS, based on the description -- and that an ill-advised surgery for it caused her death, while her children were still very young. I learned a lot from this book, but it certainly wasn't fun.

address that, It tells the stories of Constance Wilde, her dawning awareness of the affair, and the aftermath. She and her sons pay a pretty steep price. For me the book got off to a slow start. I actually put it away for a time. When I went back to it I found it to be more engaging.

Many readers are surprised that Oscar Wilde was married. Most know about his homosexuality and his time spent in Reading Gaol, but married? Indeed he was, and Louis Bayard's recreation of that marriage brings to life all the complexities, lies, and love entwined in that union. Especially poignant is Constance Wilde's ignorance and then growing awareness of the young men whom her husband invites into their home. Louis Bayard never disappoints me.

I enjoyed this book greatly. The structure was very unusual but I loved spending time in the heads of Wilde's family members. Bayard always writes characters with great insight, and this one was no different. It's not a typical structure, but knowing that, I appreciated the varied views.

I’m not sure what made me not enjoy this title. It could have been the structure, the implication that it was one of Wilde’s plays or just that something was “off”. fortunately, this wasn’t a rehash of the trial and focused more on Wilde’s wife, mother, one of two children and his lover but still I found myself skimming sections because of the flowery language.

2.5 stars, rounding up to 3. Honestly, I could as easily round down to 2. The structuring was just “off,” I felt. For example, a chapter would end and the next one basically would feel like a continuation of the previous scene, so what was the point? But more importantly, fully half of the book was set several years before Wilde’s trial, at a fateful family holiday in Norfolk. This bothers me because the book is billed as being about the AFTERMATH of the scandal and trial, about the effects and aftershocks for Wilde’s family. In the end, we get comparatively little of that, which was a huge disappointment.

Some things I especially liked. Constance as much more than just the passive almost bit-player she ends up in so many of the bio-pics I’ve seen over the years. Lady Wilde written as a kind of Downton Abbey Dowager Countess, complete with great Dame Maggie Smith zingers. Also, learning more about Wilde’s sons, and getting a little of their adult lives - though NOwhere near enough, nor as much as promised. Which brings me back to my original point, the many unfulfilled promises of this book, so as I close this review, I’m going to round down to a 2-star, “It was okay” review.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for a digital ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.