The life and work of Oscar Wilde are unmistakably linked to his homosexuality, but all too often our conceptions of the man are clouded by other, perhaps more acceptable factors, leading us to remember him by misleadingly simplistic epithets Oscar the Wit, or Wilde the Convict . In this biography Gary Schmidgall presents a vision of Oscar an inherently sexual being, drawing on the observations of Wilde's contemporaries and critics as well as extensive reference to his novels, stories and plays. The result is a provocative and frank exploration of Wilde's gay identity - something which previous biographers have shied away from - and a convincing assertion that sexual orientation is the key both to his literary accomplishments and his enduring appeal. Here is Wilde in all his many guises: the flamboyant Oxford undergraduate; the aesthete abroad; the husband and father; and the lover and seducer of young men. This is a portrait of a character whose complexity is obscured by its accessibility, and a study of a man who put his genius into his life, and only his talent into his work.