The Wildes

A Novel In Five Acts

The Wildes

A Novel in five acts

Louis Baynard

Alonquin Books

2024

In The Wildes A Novel in Five Acts, the first act transports readers back to 1892 where Oscar Wilde and his family took a holiday in the idyllic Norfolk countryside. She has every reason to be happy: two beautiful sons, her own advocacy for feminist causes, and a charming and affectionate husband and father to her children, who also happens to be the most sought-after author in England. Constance gradually realizes – and then all at once – that her husband’s heart is elsewhere as a result of the arrival of an unexpected houseguest, the aristocratic young poet Lord Alfred Douglas.

The novel then takes the reader on a journey with this family, from the Italian countryside, where Constance Wilde flees from Oscar’s imprisonment for homosexuality, through World War I trenches and an underground bar in Soho, where Oscar’s sons must deal with their father’s legacy.

In a memorable, poignant, ending , act 5 brings the entire cast together once again.

I give The Wildes Three to five stars!

Happy Reading!