A review by imaginereader
Oscar Wilde by Frank Harris, George Bernard Shaw

informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

There was a lot of discussion among Wilde's contemporaries regarding the accuracy of this work when it was first published, particularly by Lord Alfred Douglas and George Bernard Shaw. Both Douglas and Shaw initially respond with overall praise for the work, but would both go back on this in the future. Douglas praised this work in a letter that is included in the introduction but wrote a more scathing account in his own biography, (though he would eventually go on to criticize his own work and suggest future revisions after taking back some of the ideas he set forth) and then partially retracted his anger, though not his refute, in a later letter to Shaw. 

I think this opens up an interesting discussion into the validity of this work (and the biography of Wilde by Shaw), as their works are mainly based on personal recollections, which opens up the door for bias (which is ever present in this work). The two men notably disagreed on their recollection of a meeting they had with Wilde and Douglas just prior to the trials, and the differing accounts shift the narrative, making it difficult to discern the truth from these portrayals.