The Trial of Oscar Wilde, from the Shorthand Reports

The 1895 trial of Oscar Wilde stands as one of the most devastating moments in literary history. Grolleau's meticulous transcription of the shorthand reports captures every devastating detail of the case that destroyed Britain's most brilliant playwright. Wilde's fatal misstep was pursuing a libel suit against the Marquess of Queensberry, his lover's father, who had called him a sodomite. The countersuit became Wilde's own prosecution, revealing his relationships with Lord Alfred Douglas and other men to a hostile Victorian court. Grolleau presents the courtroom exchanges with stark precision, letting Wilde's own words often condemn him. This is primary source history at its most chilling: the transcript of how society murdered a genius through the machinery of law and public morality.