{"product_id":"oscar-wildes-crucifix-a-biographical-experiment-9781940423210","title":"Oscar Wilde's Crucifix: A Biographical Experiment","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWhile a student at Oxford, Oscar Wilde was courting a beautiful Dublin girl, Florence Balcombe, and on Christmas Day 1876 he presented her with a love gift of a golden crucifix. Two years later, Florence surprised Oscar by suddenly marrying another young writer from Dublin, Bram Stoker, the future author of \u003ci\u003eDracula\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDutch writer Maarten Asscher uses that crucifix as a fulcrum to examine Wilde's early development as an artist, from a seminal trip to Greece to his whirlwind tour of America and beyond, including real-life encounters with Walt Whitman and Arthur Conan Doyle. Asscher draws on the complete panoply of Wilde scholarship to supplement historical fact with imaginative reconstruction, including a myth-busting account of Wilde's deathbed in Paris, and a fictional solution to the mystery of the crucifix delivered by none other than Sherlock Holmes. The result is a convincing and original interpretation of Victorian history, and a literary tour de force.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMaarten Asscher was publisher of the leading Dutch publisher J M Meulenhoff for eight years, and managing director of Athenaeum Bookshop in Amsterdam for fifteen years. He has published more than twenty books including novels, poems, and essays, to critical acclaim. A selection of his essays was translated in the US as \u003ci\u003eApples \u0026amp; Oranges: In Praise of Comparisons\u003c\/i\u003e (Four Winds Press, 2015). \u003ci\u003eOscar Wilde's Crucifix\u003c\/i\u003e is his first book written in English. He lives in Amsterdam.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Four Winds Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51324726214930,"sku":"9781940423210","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_d6bbb93a-b302-41df-b1c3-81252e16f0f5.jpg?v=1748699214","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/oscar-wildes-crucifix-a-biographical-experiment-9781940423210","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}