Oscar Wilde and his circle

One of literature's most flamboyant and witty personalities, the much-quoted Oscar Wilde captivated London society with his works of drama, poetry and fiction.

His sharp social observation coupled with his elegant writing style assured him popular success both in Britain and the USA.

Wilde was a pioneer of celebrity whose contributions to intellectual and artistic life swiftly secured him a place in high society.

His friends and contemporaries included Aubrey Beardsley, Lillie Langtry, James McNeill Whistler, Sir Max Beerbohm and Ernest Dowson, but Wilde is perhaps best known for the circumstances of his love affair with Lord Alfred Douglas ('Bosie').

The subsequent libel case against Bosie's father, the Marquess of Queensberry, and Wilde's own tragic imprisonment made him a social exile and was to be his downfall.

In this perceptive appraisal of Wilde and his circle, Simon Callow brilliantly captures the spirit of one of Britain's most celebrated, but ultimately tragic, literary figures.