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The Trials of Oscar Wilde Deviance, Morality, and Late-Victorian Society

by Michael S. Foldy

  • ISBN: 9780300071122
  • ISBN10: 0300071124

The Trials of Oscar Wilde Deviance, Morality, and Late-Victorian Society

by Michael S. Foldy

  • Binding: Hardcover
  • Publisher: Yale Univ Pr
  • Publish date: 11/01/1997
  • ISBN: 9780300071122
  • ISBN10: 0300071124
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Description: Following Oscar Wilde's 1895 trials for committing "acts of gross indecency with men", he lost his freedom, his family, his reputation, his will to create, and even his will to live. This book sets out to examine what it was about late-Victorian society that allowed this to happen, indeed needed it to happen, and what the trials tell us about the taste and morals of late-Victorian England.

Michael S. Foldy argues that the prosecution of Wilde was directly linked to many larger social, cultural, and political issues that transcended the legal and moral concerns about his homosexuality. Analyzing the trial testimony and the coverage in the press, Foldy considers the various images and metaphors used to describe the threat that Wilde posed to English society, and he investigates the social and cultural contexts that dictated how those images were perceived.

Foldy shows how the public construction of Wilde's identity as "deviant" was both informed and limited by existing heterosexist structures of repression and mechanisms of restraint and by the emergence of a new variant of homophobia. He suggests that Lord Rosebery, the prime minister of the time, may himself have been a homosexual, and that the successful prosecution of Wilde was necessary to prevent a larger and infinitely more damaging revelation. Ultimately, Foldy locates the meaning of the trials within the rhetorical context of the contemporary public debate over the "health" of England -- a debate whose terms had been defined largely by moral conservatives -- and demonstrates that in a nation that had many reasons to be concerned about its future, Wilde was perceived to represent a constellation of potent threats to the healthof British society.

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Product notice Returnable at the third party seller's discretion and may come without consumable supplements like access codes, CD's, or workbooks.
Seller Condition Comments Price  
Seller: Midtown Scholar Bookstore
Location: Harrisburg, PA
Condition: Very Good
Very Good-Crisp, clean, unread book with some shelfwear/edgewear, may have a remainder mark-NICE Standard-sized.
Price:
$2.70
Comments:
Very Good-Crisp, clean, unread book with some shelfwear/edgewear, may have a remainder mark-NICE Standard-sized.
Seller: Midtown Scholar Bookstore
Location: Harrisburg, PA
Condition: Good
Good-Bumped and creased book with tears to the extremities, but not affecting the text block, may have remainder mark or previous owner's name-GOOD Standard-sized.
Price:
$2.72
Comments:
Good-Bumped and creased book with tears to the extremities, but not affecting the text block, may have remainder mark or previous owner's name-GOOD Standard-sized.
Seller: Wonder Book - Member ABAA/ILAB
Location: Frederick, MD
Condition: Very Good
Very Good condition. Very Good dust jacket. A copy that may have a few
[...]
Price:
$5.12
Comments:
Very Good condition. Very Good dust jacket. A copy that may have a few
[...]
Seller: St. Vinnie's Books
Location: Eugene, OR
Condition: Acceptable
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FORMER LIBRARY COPY. Former Library book. Hardcover The item is fairly worn
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Price:
$5.61
Comments:
FORMER LIBRARY COPY. Former Library book. Hardcover The item is fairly worn
[...]
Seller: SurplusTextSeller
Location: Columbia, MO
Condition: Good
Ships in a BOX from Central Missouri! May not include working access code.
[...]
Price:
$6.02
Comments:
Ships in a BOX from Central Missouri! May not include working access code.
[...]
Seller: AardBooks
Location: Fitzwilliam, NH
Condition: Good
206pp. Some marginalia to a dozen or so pages, else would be better condition.
Price:
$16.87
Comments:
206pp. Some marginalia to a dozen or so pages, else would be better condition.
Seller: isbnbooks
Location: Eugene, OR
Condition: Very Good
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Yale University, 1997, 1st printing, 206 pages, hardcover in a very good dust jacket, no owner's mark or underlining.
Price:
$22.45
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Yale University, 1997, 1st printing, 206 pages, hardcover in a very good dust jacket, no owner's mark or underlining.
Seller: Bonita
Location: Newport Coast, CA
Condition: Good
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Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items. May be an ex-library book.
Price:
$33.51
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Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items. May be an ex-library book.
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