Chapter 2

CHAPTER PAGE

INTRODUCTION iii

I. Oscar's Father and Mother on Trial 1

II. Oscar Wilde as a Schoolboy 23

III. Trinity, Dublin: Magdalen, Oxford 37

IV. Formative Influences: Oscar's Poems 50

V. Oscar's Quarrel with Whistler and Marriage 73

VI. Oscar Wilde's Faith and Practice 91

VII. Oscar's Reputation and Supporters 102

VIII. Oscar's Growth to Originality About 1890 112

IX. The Summer of Success: Oscar's First Play 133

X. The First Meeting with Lord Alfred Douglas 144

XI. The Threatening Cloud Draws Nearer 156

XII. Danger Signals: the Challenge 175

XIII. Oscar Attacks Queensberry and is Worsted 202

XIV. How Genius is Persecuted in England 229

XV. The Queen _vs._ Wilde: The First Trial 261

XVI. Escape Rejected: The Second Trial and Sentence 292