I love Oscar Wilde. He was a superstar student, poet, and lecturer before he became a celebrated playwright and novelist. What’s especially tragic is that his criminal trial and conviction probably would never have come about if he hadn’t sued the Marquess of Queensbury. The old man didn’t appreciate being called a liar (and, let’s face it, he did what Queensbury said he did), so he went after him for something that most of the upper crust looked the other way about.

It was a battle of egos but the law was on Queensbury’s side, so Wilde lost. Rarely has anyone paid so dearly for rattling the wrong person’s cage.

As an aside, why is Alfred Lord Douglas wearing beat-up shoes with a hole in one of the soles in that portrait of him with Wilde? Was it a fashion statement? I never noticed that in that photo before.