What do you think?
Rate this book
Oscar Wilde Murder Mysteries #1
Oscar Wilde e i delitti a lume di candela
Il corpo di un sedicenne macabramente ucciso viene trovato in una stanza in Cowley Street. È l'agosto del 1889. Il giovane si chiama Billy Wood, ed è un ragazzo di strada come tanti, e colui che lo ritrova - con la gola tagliata da un orecchio all'altro e circondato da candele ardenti - è nientemeno che il celebre scrittore Oscar Wilde, che il giorno dopo decide di denunciare il fatto a Scotland Yard. Solo che dell'orribile crimine è scomparsa qualsiasi traccia. Aiutato dall'amico Robert Sherard, lo scrittore decide di condurre le sue indagine da solo, incarnando suo malgrado quel personaggio di Sherlock Holmes che tanto ammira e calandosi nell'inquietante Londra nei cui vicoli risuonano ancora i passi di Jack lo Squartatore. Con questo romanzo nasce un nuovo investigatore: Oscar Wilde. Ammiratore di Arthur Conan Doyle e del suo impareggiabile Sherlock Holmes, l'ironico e arguto Wilde si rivela anche un abile detective dalla logica affilata come un lama.
346 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
420 people are currently reading
3251 people want to read
About the author
Gyles Brandreth
464 books400 followersFull name: Gyles Daubeney Brandreth.
A former Oxford Scholar, President of the Oxford Union and MP for the City of Chester, Gyles Brandreth’s career has ranged from being a Whip and Lord Commissioner of the Treasury in John Major’s government to starring in his own award-winning musical revue in London’s West End. A prolific broadcaster (in programmes ranging from Just a Minute to Have I Got News for You), an acclaimed interviewer (principally for the Sunday Telegraph), a novelist, children’s author and biographer, his best-selling diary, Breaking the Code, was described as ‘By far the best political diary of recent years, far more perceptive and revealing than Alan Clark’s’ (The Times) and ‘Searingly honest, wildly indiscreet, and incredibly funny’ (Daily Mail). He is the author of two acclaimed royal biographies: Philip Elizabeth: Portrait of a Marriage and Charles Camilla: Portrait of a Love Affair. In 2007/2008, John Murray in the UK and Simon & Schuster in the US began publishing The Oscar Wilde Murder Mysteries, his series of Victorian murder mysteries featuring Oscar Wilde as the detective.
As a performer, Gyles Brandreth has been seen most recently in ZIPP! ONE HUNDRED MUSICALS FOR LESS THAN THE PRICE OF ONE at the Duchess Theatre and on tour throughout the UK, and as Malvolio and the Sea Captain in TWELFTH NIGHT THE MUSICAL at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Gyles Brandreth is one of Britain’s busiest after-dinner speakers and award ceremony hosts. He has won awards himself, and been nominated for awards, as a public speaker, novelist, children’s writer, broadcaster (Sony), political diarist (Channel Four), journalist (British Press Awards), theatre producer (Olivier), and businessman (British Tourist Authority Come to Britain Trophy).
He is married to writer and publisher Michèle Brown, with whom he co-curated the exhibition of twentieth century children’s authors at the National Portrait Gallery and founded the award-winning Teddy Bear Museum now based at the Polka Theatre in Wimbledon. He is a trustee of the British Forces Foundation, and a former chairman and now vice-president of the National Playing Fields Association.
Gyles Brandreth’s forebears include George R. Sims (the highest-paid journalist of his day, who wrote the ballad Christmas Day in the Workhouse) and Jeremiah Brandreth (the last man in England to be beheaded for treason). His great-great-grandfather, Benjamin Brandreth, promoted ‘Brandreth’s Pills’ (a medicine that cured everything!) and was a pioneer of modern advertising and a New York state senator. Today, Gyles Brandreth has family living in New York, Maryland, South Carolina and California. He has been London correspondent for “Up to the Minute” on CBS News and his books published in the United States include the New York Times best-seller, The Joy of Lex and, most recently, Philip Elizabeth: Portrait of a Royal Marriage.
A former Oxford Scholar, President of the Oxford Union and MP for the City of Chester, Gyles Brandreth’s career has ranged from being a Whip and Lord Commissioner of the Treasury in John Major’s government to starring in his own award-winning musical revue in London’s West End. A prolific broadcaster (in programmes ranging from Just a Minute to Have I Got News for You), an acclaimed interviewer (principally for the Sunday Telegraph), a novelist, children’s author and biographer, his best-selling diary, Breaking the Code, was described as ‘By far the best political diary of recent years, far more perceptive and revealing than Alan Clark’s’ (The Times) and ‘Searingly honest, wildly indiscreet, and incredibly funny’ (Daily Mail). He is the author of two acclaimed royal biographies: Philip Elizabeth: Portrait of a Marriage and Charles Camilla: Portrait of a Love Affair. In 2007/2008, John Murray in the UK and Simon & Schuster in the US began publishing The Oscar Wilde Murder Mysteries, his series of Victorian murder mysteries featuring Oscar Wilde as the detective.
As a performer, Gyles Brandreth has been seen most recently in ZIPP! ONE HUNDRED MUSICALS FOR LESS THAN THE PRICE OF ONE at the Duchess Theatre and on tour throughout the UK, and as Malvolio and the Sea Captain in TWELFTH NIGHT THE MUSICAL at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Gyles Brandreth is one of Britain’s busiest after-dinner speakers and award ceremony hosts. He has won awards himself, and been nominated for awards, as a public speaker, novelist, children’s writer, broadcaster (Sony), political diarist (Channel Four), journalist (British Press Awards), theatre producer (Olivier), and businessman (British Tourist Authority Come to Britain Trophy).
He is married to writer and publisher Michèle Brown, with whom he co-curated the exhibition of twentieth century children’s authors at the National Portrait Gallery and founded the award-winning Teddy Bear Museum now based at the Polka Theatre in Wimbledon. He is a trustee of the British Forces Foundation, and a former chairman and now vice-president of the National Playing Fields Association.
Gyles Brandreth’s forebears include George R. Sims (the highest-paid journalist of his day, who wrote the ballad Christmas Day in the Workhouse) and Jeremiah Brandreth (the last man in England to be beheaded for treason). His great-great-grandfather, Benjamin Brandreth, promoted ‘Brandreth’s Pills’ (a medicine that cured everything!) and was a pioneer of modern advertising and a New York state senator. Today, Gyles Brandreth has family living in New York, Maryland, South Carolina and California. He has been London correspondent for “Up to the Minute” on CBS News and his books published in the United States include the New York Times best-seller, The Joy of Lex and, most recently, Philip Elizabeth: Portrait of a Royal Marriage.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 529 reviews
November 14, 2011
What a strange book. It's a fast read (took me one day, and I was doing other things too), it has Wilde, it has Conan Doyle, it has Victorian London, Scotland Yard, male prostitutes and other potentially fascinating elements, and still I didn't like it.
The most annoying part of it was the portrait of Wilde: sanitized, hagiographic,
boring, boring, boring. He loves his wife Constance, women and children in general, he loves disabled people, poor people, stupid people, and everyone loves him back! (Apart from the occasional madman who usually hasn't got the nerve to show his dislike of the divine Oscar in any interesting way.) What an idyll! People trust Wilde with their innermost secrets, cry in his arms, sacrifice themselves to the point of idiocy. Maybe this guy is someone else? His detective methods are lifted wholesale from Sherlock Holmes (it really got me scratching my head. Why was it allowed? More importantly, why did the author do it this way? It must have been boring!) Yes, he does use Wilde's witticisms, and he obviously likes young men - but he's never sarcastic, never cruel, never cynical, and as to the young men, well, he's like an uncle to them, he just admires their youth. He prefers beautiful French courtesans, see. Basically, he's just a big softie, insisting that his very new acquaintances call him by his first name. (The constant "oh, you see, Robert," "yes, Arthur", "dear Aidan, you must call me Oscar, we must be friends", just got on my nerves.)
There were lots of unnecessary descriptions of the Wildes' marital and domestic bliss, and pointless eating out, and what was the story of the girl in the window there for? Again, to show Wilde as a saint? I can't help but think about the fact that the author has also written royal biographies, and some of the required attitude stuck to his pen.
Yes? You think I'm ranting because I wanted homosexual orgies, and got a few timid interludes? Well okay, I'd have loved something more than this tight-lipped discretion, not that I expected too much - but I just couldn't buy this particular image of Wilde and his world. Too flat, too ostensibly well-mannered.
I liked the denouement though. That's about it.
I'd like to see the other books in the series, but I'm not going to pay a full price again. I'll try BookOff.
The most annoying part of it was the portrait of Wilde: sanitized, hagiographic,
boring, boring, boring. He loves his wife Constance, women and children in general, he loves disabled people, poor people, stupid people, and everyone loves him back! (Apart from the occasional madman who usually hasn't got the nerve to show his dislike of the divine Oscar in any interesting way.) What an idyll! People trust Wilde with their innermost secrets, cry in his arms, sacrifice themselves to the point of idiocy. Maybe this guy is someone else? His detective methods are lifted wholesale from Sherlock Holmes (it really got me scratching my head. Why was it allowed? More importantly, why did the author do it this way? It must have been boring!) Yes, he does use Wilde's witticisms, and he obviously likes young men - but he's never sarcastic, never cruel, never cynical, and as to the young men, well, he's like an uncle to them, he just admires their youth. He prefers beautiful French courtesans, see. Basically, he's just a big softie, insisting that his very new acquaintances call him by his first name. (The constant "oh, you see, Robert," "yes, Arthur", "dear Aidan, you must call me Oscar, we must be friends", just got on my nerves.)
There were lots of unnecessary descriptions of the Wildes' marital and domestic bliss, and pointless eating out, and what was the story of the girl in the window there for? Again, to show Wilde as a saint? I can't help but think about the fact that the author has also written royal biographies, and some of the required attitude stuck to his pen.
Yes? You think I'm ranting because I wanted homosexual orgies, and got a few timid interludes? Well okay, I'd have loved something more than this tight-lipped discretion, not that I expected too much - but I just couldn't buy this particular image of Wilde and his world. Too flat, too ostensibly well-mannered.
I liked the denouement though. That's about it.
I'd like to see the other books in the series, but I'm not going to pay a full price again. I'll try BookOff.
September 5, 2021
I've taken a look at other reviews and I think that the name of Oscar Wilde on the cover, so to speak, sets people's expectations rather high. I did not know what to expect from the book, so I wasn't disappointed. However, some people say that Wilde's homosexuality is covered up here, — I do not find it true. What happens is that Robert Sherard, the narrator, did not believe it at that point; still, there are hints here and there.
But this is not a book about homosexuality or Wilde; it is rather a murder mystery with gay characters and Wilde quotations. It very much reminded me of quest video games, — I was not surprised to learn that the author is obviously a fan of (various) games.
All in all, this is a nice quick read. It's not in-depth, not biographical; instead, it's a light and sometimes funny pastiche — I can imagine the author had a lot of fun writing it.
One reviewer complained of the endless eating out; well, for me this was one of the main charms of the book :)
But this is not a book about homosexuality or Wilde; it is rather a murder mystery with gay characters and Wilde quotations. It very much reminded me of quest video games, — I was not surprised to learn that the author is obviously a fan of (various) games.
All in all, this is a nice quick read. It's not in-depth, not biographical; instead, it's a light and sometimes funny pastiche — I can imagine the author had a lot of fun writing it.
One reviewer complained of the endless eating out; well, for me this was one of the main charms of the book :)
August 26, 2010
It's difficult to put my finger on exactly what it was about this book that I didn't like. I think a lot of it is the narrator, Wilde's friend Robert Sherard. The narration just felt off. Half the time the narrator is being oblivious of any hints of homosexuality, regardless of how many rent boys he's surrounded with and the other half he's talking about Wilde's eventual trial and disgrace. Make up your mind! Really, there's a sense of uncomfortableness handling the issues of sexuality. Maybe it's just really British. Other than that, I was annoyed by the obvious attempt to make Wilde-Sherard into Holmes-Watson. Arthur Conan Doyle plays a significant role in the story, but the author can't seem to decide if Wilde is trying to be like Holmes from one reading of Study in Scarlet or if Doyle is molding Holmes on Wilde. Plus, the mystery is horribly slow and the book way too long. The mystery takes over seven months to solve and most of that time is spent not doing anything much. In the middle of the book I got really bored and went and read Conan Doyle's original Holmes stories instead. The original Holmes and Watson were much more interesting, suspenseful, and more fun than this book. The mystery finally picked up and became interesting in the last quarter of the book, but I saw the solution coming way in advance. Wilde should never be boring, but Mr. Brandreth has succeeded in making him so.
July 7, 2014
This is a Victorian mystery with Oscar Wilde acting as an investigator in the manner of Sherlock Holmes, the creation of Wilde's friend Arthur Conan Doyle. Wilde is very observant, as well as being a charming, witty conversationalist and writer. The story is narrated by Wilde's real friend, author Robert Sherard who is a character similar to Dr Watson. Wilde is searching for the murderer of a young male prostitute, found dead in a room full of incense and flickering candles. Oscar Wilde wrote the story "The Picture of Dorian Gray" based on the demise of the young Billy Wood.
The story incorporates Victorian historical characters and events into a murder mystery. There were many wonderful quotes from Oscar Wilde, giving the reader a sense of his entertaining personality. The book transported the reader to Victorian England, but the period details sometimes slowed the flow of the mystery. Oscar Wilde tied it all up with a "Sherlock Holmes" type of an explanation at the end, which included a little twist.
The story incorporates Victorian historical characters and events into a murder mystery. There were many wonderful quotes from Oscar Wilde, giving the reader a sense of his entertaining personality. The book transported the reader to Victorian England, but the period details sometimes slowed the flow of the mystery. Oscar Wilde tied it all up with a "Sherlock Holmes" type of an explanation at the end, which included a little twist.
May 28, 2011
Picked this one up in a swap, mostly because it was the first in a series, though I have to say the garishness of the cover also attracted me!
From the title, you can probably guess the identity of our protagonist, although the book itself is written from the perspective not of Oscar but of his friend (and later biographer) Robert Sherrard. The basic premise is that Oscar Wilde stumbles across the murdered body of a teenage lad of his acquaintance, killed in what appears to be a ritualistic manner, but then the police seem oddly reticent to investigate the matter properly.
Arthur Conan Doyle, just then writing The Sign of Four, makes a couple of appearances and Wilde takes encouragement from his writings about Sherlock Holmes to launch an investigation of his own. It's pretty clear that from his choice of point of view, the author is looking to try and cast Sherrard and Wilde into the roles of Watson and Holmes respectively, but that seems to be a mistake - Sherrard just doesn't have the humanity of Dr Watson and spends much of his time trying to figure out how to seduce various women.
Another odd factor, which makes Sherrard an even more unreliable narrator and makes me wonder at the views of the author on this subject, is that even looking back on all of this with the benefit of hindsight, there seems to be a concerted effort to deny anything but the most ardent heterosexual interpretations of Wilde. Much effort is put into a depiction of his marriage and happy family home, while any interest in his own gender is brushed away as an aesthetic appreciation and nothing more. For all these reasons, while the next book in the series is Oscar Wilde and the Ring of Death, this series and I will be parting company here...
From the title, you can probably guess the identity of our protagonist, although the book itself is written from the perspective not of Oscar but of his friend (and later biographer) Robert Sherrard. The basic premise is that Oscar Wilde stumbles across the murdered body of a teenage lad of his acquaintance, killed in what appears to be a ritualistic manner, but then the police seem oddly reticent to investigate the matter properly.
Arthur Conan Doyle, just then writing The Sign of Four, makes a couple of appearances and Wilde takes encouragement from his writings about Sherlock Holmes to launch an investigation of his own. It's pretty clear that from his choice of point of view, the author is looking to try and cast Sherrard and Wilde into the roles of Watson and Holmes respectively, but that seems to be a mistake - Sherrard just doesn't have the humanity of Dr Watson and spends much of his time trying to figure out how to seduce various women.
Another odd factor, which makes Sherrard an even more unreliable narrator and makes me wonder at the views of the author on this subject, is that even looking back on all of this with the benefit of hindsight, there seems to be a concerted effort to deny anything but the most ardent heterosexual interpretations of Wilde. Much effort is put into a depiction of his marriage and happy family home, while any interest in his own gender is brushed away as an aesthetic appreciation and nothing more. For all these reasons, while the next book in the series is Oscar Wilde and the Ring of Death, this series and I will be parting company here...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 6, 2012
I absolutely loved this book. It was witty and clever and held me to its pages, so, in other words it was a quick read. It had everything I like to read especially the many witticisms by Oscar Wilde. I came away loving him and wishing that his life had been happier and more settled.
The story revolves around Oscar and his very good friend Robert Shepard as they take on a kind of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson personna. It concerns the murder of a young man Billy Wood, who supposedly was the inspiration behind Mr. Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. His death and his subsequent murderer are revealed quite slowly building suspense while letting the reader get to know Oscar and and his band of friends and family.
We all know Oscar's story and although this author takes a very sympathetic view of Oscar and his behaviors, it was quite the enjoyable tale of a man that perhaps we have judged too harshly. Oscar Wilde was witty, flamboyant, and certainly a person who inspired quite a bit of disdain in Victorian times. Within the pages of this book he was an absolute delight, a free spirit who enjoyed life and all its elements fully. Whether or not Mr. Wilde was a man of many sexual appetites was approached broadly by the author.
It was a very enjoyable read for one who is not necessarily a mystery type reader and I certainly wish to explore more of this author's works. it also had me wondering that perhaps Mr Wilde was nothing but an eccentric and not such a bad man as the times seemed to have portrayed him.
The story revolves around Oscar and his very good friend Robert Shepard as they take on a kind of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson personna. It concerns the murder of a young man Billy Wood, who supposedly was the inspiration behind Mr. Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. His death and his subsequent murderer are revealed quite slowly building suspense while letting the reader get to know Oscar and and his band of friends and family.
We all know Oscar's story and although this author takes a very sympathetic view of Oscar and his behaviors, it was quite the enjoyable tale of a man that perhaps we have judged too harshly. Oscar Wilde was witty, flamboyant, and certainly a person who inspired quite a bit of disdain in Victorian times. Within the pages of this book he was an absolute delight, a free spirit who enjoyed life and all its elements fully. Whether or not Mr. Wilde was a man of many sexual appetites was approached broadly by the author.
It was a very enjoyable read for one who is not necessarily a mystery type reader and I certainly wish to explore more of this author's works. it also had me wondering that perhaps Mr Wilde was nothing but an eccentric and not such a bad man as the times seemed to have portrayed him.
July 15, 2014
My first Gyles Brandreth and became a fan immediately.
May 13, 2012
I approached this historical mystery as I normally do, for the characters and the historical elements, with the mystery being well down my list. I very much enjoyed the historical fiction and character driven aspects of this book, which is about 2/3 of the book. When it gets to where the main focus is on the mystery I wasn't in the same thrall I was in before. That is what has caused my dilemma in rating this and in justifying my feelings towards this book.
This book is at its best in letting the reader into the lives and world of Oscar Wilde, Arthur Conan Doyle and it's narrator Robert Sherard. It is clear Brandreth is familiar with and admires these men, and he admits an author needs to be a little in love with their subject. He succeeds very well in this area, showing Oscar off mostly in his best light as a bright, witty, magnetic, humorous, true friend and gentleman. You get an insight into Wilde you can't really get anywhere else because you get the feeling you are having a visit with Wilde.
At the same time Brandreth doesn't shy away from showing Wilde's shortcomings; his swiftly changing temperament, his dislike of deformities and ugliness, selfishness, classicism, and his conflicting thoughts toward women.
It is this dichotomy of Oscar that Brandreth is attempting to capture and bring to life, as well as the differences between Wilde, and Robert Sherard and Arthur Conan Doyle. He does this to amazing effect on many levels but not as much on the deeper more intimate levels. Using Sherard, Wilde's original biographer and friend, as the narrator helps to give readers the feeling of getting that inside look and offers so many opportunities for little knowledgeable asides. There is a lot of info dump about the lives and careers of Wilde and Conan Doyle and their contemporaries, which I actually loved, but others may not appreciate since it interrupts the narrative flow.
Brandreth stated, he doesn't want this series to be considered as "gay murder mysteries" but that it is for the general reader. Being purposely vague regarding Wilde's lifestyle and the nature of Wilde's relationship to the murder victim, Billy Wood, may be an effort to make this book palatable to all readers, or keep to within Victorian views, or purposely left for further exploration in future books, but this can also lead to a bit of confusion for the reader. I feel he did make this is accessible to all readers, due in part to trying to show us the full man, not just his parts.
The mystery itself has enough to keep the reader invested, there are enough clues dropped and misdirections given, with some unexpected developments thrown in, to keep the reader involved. There were certain aspects within the mystery that I didn't like, some of which I can’t go into detail on without spoiling the outcome. It didn't feel right that Oscar knowingly allowed a friend to pursue something that he knew was hopeless, as much as he valued friendship would he really do such a thing? The way Oscar held court over the proceedings, gathering all those involved, and slowly doling out his findings, keeping the attention on himself instead of the murdered victims and the consequences or feelings of those in attendance. I apologize but I have to be vague about the last issue: I was disappointed that it had to take that direction, maybe because I wanted more for that character and wished there was another way.
Oscar comes off too much like Sherlock Holmes for me, I know he was very intelligent and perceptive but it was just too much. It was just too obvious, maybe if it was handled in a more subtle less obvious way. There are is a short scene of abuse to a 15 year old girl, when learning about a female character's past. The indifference in the way the teenaged boys were discussed, glossed over, just gave my stomach twinges of discomfort. I also wish the author had provided translations for the foreign phrases and quotes, I just hate not understanding what is being said.
Brandreth did a wonderful job melding the real Wilde quotes with his made up words, making them all feel Wildean. I dare you to read it and not have at least one quote make an impression on you. There are just so many to chose from, that I had a difficulty picking which ones to put in this review, just check out my status updates here. To enhance your understanding of this book make sure to read the biographical historical notes provided on the three main characters and the authors Q&A, they should not be missed. Plus you have the added bonus of learning the authors own personal connection to Wilde.
This was a buddy read with Jeannette, Laura and Marialyce with some mixed results among all of us, so I guess there shouldn't be any surprise that I had mixed reactions to portions of the book. One thing we can all agree on is the dynamic presence of Oscar Wilde. The history and characters get a solid rating of four, while my misgivings over several aspects, especially the denouement of the mystery, gets a 2, making my average overall rating a 3. I certainly want to explore more books in the series, if only to spend more time with that frenetic, magnetic and charmingly witty Wilde man.
This book is at its best in letting the reader into the lives and world of Oscar Wilde, Arthur Conan Doyle and it's narrator Robert Sherard. It is clear Brandreth is familiar with and admires these men, and he admits an author needs to be a little in love with their subject. He succeeds very well in this area, showing Oscar off mostly in his best light as a bright, witty, magnetic, humorous, true friend and gentleman. You get an insight into Wilde you can't really get anywhere else because you get the feeling you are having a visit with Wilde.
"He was neither grand nor arrogant, but he was magnificent. He was never handsome, but he was striking. He had the advantage of height and the discipline of good posture."(19)
At the same time Brandreth doesn't shy away from showing Wilde's shortcomings; his swiftly changing temperament, his dislike of deformities and ugliness, selfishness, classicism, and his conflicting thoughts toward women.
"You are a man, Robert! You know my rule: the only way to behave with a woman is to make love to her if she is pretty and to someone else if she is plain." (132)
"She has energy and intelligence - yet, through an accident of birth, she is fated to play the docile woman's part. It is difficult to be wholly happy in such circumstances."(275)
It is this dichotomy of Oscar that Brandreth is attempting to capture and bring to life, as well as the differences between Wilde, and Robert Sherard and Arthur Conan Doyle. He does this to amazing effect on many levels but not as much on the deeper more intimate levels. Using Sherard, Wilde's original biographer and friend, as the narrator helps to give readers the feeling of getting that inside look and offers so many opportunities for little knowledgeable asides. There is a lot of info dump about the lives and careers of Wilde and Conan Doyle and their contemporaries, which I actually loved, but others may not appreciate since it interrupts the narrative flow.
Brandreth stated, he doesn't want this series to be considered as "gay murder mysteries" but that it is for the general reader. Being purposely vague regarding Wilde's lifestyle and the nature of Wilde's relationship to the murder victim, Billy Wood, may be an effort to make this book palatable to all readers, or keep to within Victorian views, or purposely left for further exploration in future books, but this can also lead to a bit of confusion for the reader. I feel he did make this is accessible to all readers, due in part to trying to show us the full man, not just his parts.
"Indeed, I am sure you have found, Inspector, that while alcohol, taken in sufficient quantities, produces all the effect of intoxication, the only proper intoxication is conversation."
The mystery itself has enough to keep the reader invested, there are enough clues dropped and misdirections given, with some unexpected developments thrown in, to keep the reader involved. There were certain aspects within the mystery that I didn't like, some of which I can’t go into detail on without spoiling the outcome. It didn't feel right that Oscar knowingly allowed a friend to pursue something that he knew was hopeless, as much as he valued friendship would he really do such a thing? The way Oscar held court over the proceedings, gathering all those involved, and slowly doling out his findings, keeping the attention on himself instead of the murdered victims and the consequences or feelings of those in attendance. I apologize but I have to be vague about the last issue: I was disappointed that it had to take that direction, maybe because I wanted more for that character and wished there was another way.
Oscar comes off too much like Sherlock Holmes for me, I know he was very intelligent and perceptive but it was just too much. It was just too obvious, maybe if it was handled in a more subtle less obvious way. There are is a short scene of abuse to a 15 year old girl, when learning about a female character's past. The indifference in the way the teenaged boys were discussed, glossed over, just gave my stomach twinges of discomfort. I also wish the author had provided translations for the foreign phrases and quotes, I just hate not understanding what is being said.
Brandreth did a wonderful job melding the real Wilde quotes with his made up words, making them all feel Wildean. I dare you to read it and not have at least one quote make an impression on you. There are just so many to chose from, that I had a difficulty picking which ones to put in this review, just check out my status updates here. To enhance your understanding of this book make sure to read the biographical historical notes provided on the three main characters and the authors Q&A, they should not be missed. Plus you have the added bonus of learning the authors own personal connection to Wilde.
"Keep love in your heart - always! A life without love is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead."
This was a buddy read with Jeannette, Laura and Marialyce with some mixed results among all of us, so I guess there shouldn't be any surprise that I had mixed reactions to portions of the book. One thing we can all agree on is the dynamic presence of Oscar Wilde. The history and characters get a solid rating of four, while my misgivings over several aspects, especially the denouement of the mystery, gets a 2, making my average overall rating a 3. I certainly want to explore more books in the series, if only to spend more time with that frenetic, magnetic and charmingly witty Wilde man.
"We live for the promise of delights only dreamt of, of sweets not yet savoured, of books as yet unwritten and unread." (171)
June 11, 2010
Knowing of Gyles Brandreth from the television and radio, I rather thought this book might be a little “sophisticated” for me. He’s a vastly intelligent man and, like Stephen Fry, he often loses me with his mind but I needn’t have worried, because The Candlelight Murders(as it's known in the UK) is an enjoyable – almost frothy – murder mystery of the old school and thoroughly enjoyable.
It’s obvious from the word go that Brandreth is a big fan of Oscar Wilde and he sets the scene well. The books are narrated from the Point of View of Robert Sherrad, a real life friend of Wilde’s, and right at the beginning Robert makes it clear that although he loved Oscar, he was not his lover. The narration style is worthy of Watson, bumbling a good 20 steps behind the genius of Wilde as he burns his way across the page, leaving epithets and witticisms in his wake – believably so, as Brandreth explains that he would trial his “stock phrases” on his friends and relations before using them in his published works.
Oscar is totally believable, you can almost visualise him, almost believe that Brandreth had spent time with the great man, because he’s portrayed here in all of his greatness and his ambivalence. His love for his family and his wife is clear and yet the darker side of his life is never glossed over, not completely. It is clear that Sherrad knows of his predilections and they threaten to break through at any time.
I enjoyed this particularly because I grew up with Sayers and with Christie, I love romping through a book, catching some of the same clues as the detective and feeling smug, but I also love being led down a blind alley and being throughly duped by a clever writer. This doesn’t achieve that totally, not – for example – in the same magnificence as “Ten Little Niggers” did, or “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd”, because I actually realised what was going on a couple of chapters towards the end. But it did a damned good job and once started it was impossible to put down.
The period detail is spectacularly well done, the demimonde feel of the fin-de-siecle cities, the descriptions of Oscar’s house, the dinner parties and most intriguingly the group of men who love boys is perfectly expressed. The cast of characters, ranging from the aesthetes to the grotesque as wonderfully drawn and suit the era and the darker undercurrents exactly.
Anyone who loves a good murder mystery will love this, and the homoerotic sublayers add even more flavour.
It’s obvious from the word go that Brandreth is a big fan of Oscar Wilde and he sets the scene well. The books are narrated from the Point of View of Robert Sherrad, a real life friend of Wilde’s, and right at the beginning Robert makes it clear that although he loved Oscar, he was not his lover. The narration style is worthy of Watson, bumbling a good 20 steps behind the genius of Wilde as he burns his way across the page, leaving epithets and witticisms in his wake – believably so, as Brandreth explains that he would trial his “stock phrases” on his friends and relations before using them in his published works.
Oscar is totally believable, you can almost visualise him, almost believe that Brandreth had spent time with the great man, because he’s portrayed here in all of his greatness and his ambivalence. His love for his family and his wife is clear and yet the darker side of his life is never glossed over, not completely. It is clear that Sherrad knows of his predilections and they threaten to break through at any time.
I enjoyed this particularly because I grew up with Sayers and with Christie, I love romping through a book, catching some of the same clues as the detective and feeling smug, but I also love being led down a blind alley and being throughly duped by a clever writer. This doesn’t achieve that totally, not – for example – in the same magnificence as “Ten Little Niggers” did, or “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd”, because I actually realised what was going on a couple of chapters towards the end. But it did a damned good job and once started it was impossible to put down.
The period detail is spectacularly well done, the demimonde feel of the fin-de-siecle cities, the descriptions of Oscar’s house, the dinner parties and most intriguingly the group of men who love boys is perfectly expressed. The cast of characters, ranging from the aesthetes to the grotesque as wonderfully drawn and suit the era and the darker undercurrents exactly.
Anyone who loves a good murder mystery will love this, and the homoerotic sublayers add even more flavour.
April 25, 2020
'The Candlelight Murders' lays its cards, or rather, its premise, on the table with indelicate force. The first in a deliciously implausible series of stories in which Oscar Finegal O'Flaherty Wills Wilde finds the time between his triple life as a writer, a father and a feaster at the panther's table (shush now) to solve murder-mysteries, and admirable for being so candid about swiping the tried-and-true methods of Sherlock Holmes.
The poet Robert Sherard (in reality a Ganyemedian satellite to the Jovian Wilde, and his first biographer) is here enlisted to play the Watson, trotting along behind Wilde with a devoted and slightly scatterbrained look on his face. He's a solid chronicler; Brandreth keeps his narration smooth and the plot twisting, just the way we like our crime fiction, but his Sherard falls a touch short of the doctor he's modelled on. The quick-witted ladykiller Watson may have been transformed by a century of adaptation into an imbecile with the intellectual heft of a pot of jam, but for all his admiration of Holmes, Watson was hardly so droolingly passive as this fictionalisation of Sherard can occasionally come across.
Wilde himself is much more fun, if only because Brandreth is hammering him into the Holmes mould right from the off even as Wilde proves a touch too rotund for it. Within a mere two chapters he's hobnobbing with Conan Doyle himself (just in case you weren't paying attention), and it's here that the absurd premise gains a surprising amount of traction. It may be utterly implausible, but the thought of Wilde, a man of many faces and masks in reality, electing to 'play the part' of Holmes, is one that gets brought off rather successfully.
The poet Robert Sherard (in reality a Ganyemedian satellite to the Jovian Wilde, and his first biographer) is here enlisted to play the Watson, trotting along behind Wilde with a devoted and slightly scatterbrained look on his face. He's a solid chronicler; Brandreth keeps his narration smooth and the plot twisting, just the way we like our crime fiction, but his Sherard falls a touch short of the doctor he's modelled on. The quick-witted ladykiller Watson may have been transformed by a century of adaptation into an imbecile with the intellectual heft of a pot of jam, but for all his admiration of Holmes, Watson was hardly so droolingly passive as this fictionalisation of Sherard can occasionally come across.
Wilde himself is much more fun, if only because Brandreth is hammering him into the Holmes mould right from the off even as Wilde proves a touch too rotund for it. Within a mere two chapters he's hobnobbing with Conan Doyle himself (just in case you weren't paying attention), and it's here that the absurd premise gains a surprising amount of traction. It may be utterly implausible, but the thought of Wilde, a man of many faces and masks in reality, electing to 'play the part' of Holmes, is one that gets brought off rather successfully.
May 5, 2022
This really deserves the full stars, it was so well written, well researched, clearly based upon biographies and true to life... BUT. 83 pages in the company of Oscar Wilde was all I could stand! In the end, his passion for talking and inaction grated and I gave up! Oh look, my great love has been murdered, I think I'll have dinner with friends, fixate on fashion, then perhaps mention it tomorrow. Food, fashion and clever opinions hold poor Oscar's attention far more than the murders he sets out to solve! Alas, they don't hold mine.
Want to read
August 28, 2022This sounds like Poe Party but in book form. Count me in.
January 25, 2022
'Oscar Wilde and a Death of No Importance' is a historical fiction about the eponymous Oscar Wilde, investigating the murder of Billy Wood, a beautiful young male prostitute.
Let's.... address the elephant in the room. Oscar Wilde was pretty notorious for being bisexual. Author Gyles Brandreth bends over backward to paint Wilde as being super-duper heterosexual. I, look, I am not a Wilde scholar, so I'm certainly not in a position to argue. But, besides the fact that most scholars I found in a quick search said that Wilde WAS either homosexual or bisexual, the fact that Brandreth incessantly repeats how Wilde loves the ladies/is platonic with the dudes, makes it feel like he has some kind of agenda. I mean, if I wanted to write a fiction about Oscar Wilde, and I deeply believed he was heterosexual (contrary to what the majority of the literary world thinks), or wanted to portray him that way to help sales, I would mention he was straight once, and drop it. Brandreth can't let a chapter go by without driving into the ground how Wilde digs chicks, and is just fraternally loving any men. The instances where Brandreth has Wilde say something defending others' homosexuality are all so watered-down and back-handed, that it reads as a veiled insult. It's all around an insult to LGBTQ history and representation, something I could gloss over if this book were written in the 1970s or before, but 2007? It's unnecessary at best, offensive at worst.
So, other than the burying of Oscar Wilde's homosexuality, is the book worth a read? Not particularly, no. There is a great challenge in writing a story about a person as witty as Oscar Wilde, mainly that the writer has to be nearly as witty to really speak for the character. It's not Brandreth's fault that he's not that witty (who is??), but really, he's not even halfway there. Many attempts at being humorous or droll fall flat; the book is full of Wilde quotes and variations on Wilde quips, so those instances when I thought something was actually clever, it was really likely it was cribbed from Wilde instead of made up by the author.
Wilde's detective method is a complete copy of the observational technique of Sherlock Holmes. Some parts of the book read like a Holmes fan-fic. He even had his own 'Baker Street Irregulars', and in this history Arthur Conan Doyle steals that idea from him. Some parts of Wilde's struggle with society and depression ring true, but in other cases his actions (waiting hours to report a murder, waiting weeks to investigate the crime scene?) are nonsensical.
The murder was easy to solve, since only one recurring character in the book was not an obvious red herring
This book is like a mash-up of a Sherlock Holmes story and a Wilde quote book, except for the feeling of gratification you'd have at the end of reading those two. Very disappointing.
Let's.... address the elephant in the room. Oscar Wilde was pretty notorious for being bisexual. Author Gyles Brandreth bends over backward to paint Wilde as being super-duper heterosexual. I, look, I am not a Wilde scholar, so I'm certainly not in a position to argue. But, besides the fact that most scholars I found in a quick search said that Wilde WAS either homosexual or bisexual, the fact that Brandreth incessantly repeats how Wilde loves the ladies/is platonic with the dudes, makes it feel like he has some kind of agenda. I mean, if I wanted to write a fiction about Oscar Wilde, and I deeply believed he was heterosexual (contrary to what the majority of the literary world thinks), or wanted to portray him that way to help sales, I would mention he was straight once, and drop it. Brandreth can't let a chapter go by without driving into the ground how Wilde digs chicks, and is just fraternally loving any men. The instances where Brandreth has Wilde say something defending others' homosexuality are all so watered-down and back-handed, that it reads as a veiled insult. It's all around an insult to LGBTQ history and representation, something I could gloss over if this book were written in the 1970s or before, but 2007? It's unnecessary at best, offensive at worst.
So, other than the burying of Oscar Wilde's homosexuality, is the book worth a read? Not particularly, no. There is a great challenge in writing a story about a person as witty as Oscar Wilde, mainly that the writer has to be nearly as witty to really speak for the character. It's not Brandreth's fault that he's not that witty (who is??), but really, he's not even halfway there. Many attempts at being humorous or droll fall flat; the book is full of Wilde quotes and variations on Wilde quips, so those instances when I thought something was actually clever, it was really likely it was cribbed from Wilde instead of made up by the author.
Wilde's detective method is a complete copy of the observational technique of Sherlock Holmes. Some parts of the book read like a Holmes fan-fic. He even had his own 'Baker Street Irregulars', and in this history Arthur Conan Doyle steals that idea from him. Some parts of Wilde's struggle with society and depression ring true, but in other cases his actions (waiting hours to report a murder, waiting weeks to investigate the crime scene?) are nonsensical.
The murder was easy to solve, since only one recurring character in the book was not an obvious red herring
This book is like a mash-up of a Sherlock Holmes story and a Wilde quote book, except for the feeling of gratification you'd have at the end of reading those two. Very disappointing.
May 5, 2012
3.5 stars
I will wait for Jeannette, Marialyce and Dawn before post my review. However, since I always avoid spoilers in my reviews, see my review as followed.
Even if I am not a big fan of mysteries featuring real literary authors, I liked this one.
In my opinion, the author managed quite well to balance between quoting famous artists & writers with a mystery case as background.
Among the citations, we can mention some of these well known names, such as: Arthur Conan Doyle, (Sherlock Holmes, Watson), Robert Sherard, Butler Yeats, William Wordsworth, Thomas Huxley, Émile Zola, Mrs. O’Keefe (Georgia), Walter Scott, Madame Tussaud, Euripides, Plato, Madame Rostand (an old Wilde's passion), Gustave Eiffel, Louis Pasteur, Jerome K. Jerome, Wagner, Millais, Maupassant, Baudelaire, Byron, Wordsworth, John Keats, Doré and Tenniel. Certainly, I must forgot to mention some other names.
Some interesting quotations:
Page 5:
"Life is the nightmare that prevents one from sleeping.”
Page 48:
"Science “is nothing but trained and organised common sense", by Thomas Huxley.
Page 72:
"Fidelity is over-rated, Robert,” I heard him say. “It is loyalty that counts—and understanding.”
Page 82:
“Actors are so fortunate,” Oscar wrote to me in a letter once. “They can choose whether they appear in tragedy or in comedy, whether they will suffer or make merry, laugh or shed tears. But in real life it is different. There are no choices. All the world’s a stage, but we must play as we are cast.”
Page 107:
“This happens to be my birthday, Robert, and on each of my anniversaries I mourn the flight of one year of my youth into nothingness, the growing blight upon my summer…Tempus fugit inreparabile!”
Page 110:
“To win back my youth,” Oscar continued, unabashed, “there is nothing I would not do—except, of course, take exercise, rise early, or give up alcohol.”
Page 148:
“There is no friendship possible between men and women, Robert. Remember that. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship.”
Page 190:
“‘Nobody ever commits a crime without doing something stupid.’”
The truth is, a poet can survive anything but a misprint—but is Oxford the place for the truth?
Page 264:
‘Women are meant to be loved, not to be understood.’”
Page 288:
“Prayers must never be answered, Robert! If prayers are answered, they cease to be prayers and become correspondence…”
I will wait for Jeannette, Marialyce and Dawn before post my review. However, since I always avoid spoilers in my reviews, see my review as followed.
Even if I am not a big fan of mysteries featuring real literary authors, I liked this one.
In my opinion, the author managed quite well to balance between quoting famous artists & writers with a mystery case as background.
Among the citations, we can mention some of these well known names, such as: Arthur Conan Doyle, (Sherlock Holmes, Watson), Robert Sherard, Butler Yeats, William Wordsworth, Thomas Huxley, Émile Zola, Mrs. O’Keefe (Georgia), Walter Scott, Madame Tussaud, Euripides, Plato, Madame Rostand (an old Wilde's passion), Gustave Eiffel, Louis Pasteur, Jerome K. Jerome, Wagner, Millais, Maupassant, Baudelaire, Byron, Wordsworth, John Keats, Doré and Tenniel. Certainly, I must forgot to mention some other names.
Some interesting quotations:
Page 5:
"Life is the nightmare that prevents one from sleeping.”
Page 48:
"Science “is nothing but trained and organised common sense", by Thomas Huxley.
Page 72:
"Fidelity is over-rated, Robert,” I heard him say. “It is loyalty that counts—and understanding.”
Page 82:
“Actors are so fortunate,” Oscar wrote to me in a letter once. “They can choose whether they appear in tragedy or in comedy, whether they will suffer or make merry, laugh or shed tears. But in real life it is different. There are no choices. All the world’s a stage, but we must play as we are cast.”
Page 107:
“This happens to be my birthday, Robert, and on each of my anniversaries I mourn the flight of one year of my youth into nothingness, the growing blight upon my summer…Tempus fugit inreparabile!”
Page 110:
“To win back my youth,” Oscar continued, unabashed, “there is nothing I would not do—except, of course, take exercise, rise early, or give up alcohol.”
Page 148:
“There is no friendship possible between men and women, Robert. Remember that. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship.”
Page 190:
“‘Nobody ever commits a crime without doing something stupid.’”
The truth is, a poet can survive anything but a misprint—but is Oxford the place for the truth?
Page 264:
‘Women are meant to be loved, not to be understood.’”
Page 288:
“Prayers must never be answered, Robert! If prayers are answered, they cease to be prayers and become correspondence…”
December 9, 2014
I picked this on up after reading The Picture of Dorian Gray. I never heard of the series but seeing Oscar Wilde mentioned in the series made me very curious. After about 2 years, I finally got to it. A fun character read with an interesting mystery. It's obvious this author really appreciates Wilde, Sherard and Doyle and it feels like these characters are probably pretty true to life. I found it be be well-written and an enjoyable read. I'll be moving on to the next in the series.
December 12, 2016
Gerçek hayattan karakterlerle işlenmiş bir kurmaca.
Kitabın detaylarına inildiğinde -bilinçli olup olmadığını bilmediğim için- güzel rastlantılar var. Örneğin; Doyle, Wilde'a kendisinden ilham alarak hikayelerinde Sherlock'un abisi karakterini katacağını söylüyor. Tesadüf bu ki, 1997 yapımı "wilde" filminde Oscar Wilde'ı ve Sherlock Holmes filmlerinde Mycroft Holmes'ü oynayan kişi aynıdır: Stephen Fry.
Velhasıl güzel bir roman.
Kitabın detaylarına inildiğinde -bilinçli olup olmadığını bilmediğim için- güzel rastlantılar var. Örneğin; Doyle, Wilde'a kendisinden ilham alarak hikayelerinde Sherlock'un abisi karakterini katacağını söylüyor. Tesadüf bu ki, 1997 yapımı "wilde" filminde Oscar Wilde'ı ve Sherlock Holmes filmlerinde Mycroft Holmes'ü oynayan kişi aynıdır: Stephen Fry.
Velhasıl güzel bir roman.
August 12, 2020
Too theatrical for me, and Wilde depicted here is a really annoying person.
April 15, 2018
Încerc să-mi amintesc dacă romanul lui Gyles Brandreth, Oscar Wilde și crimele la lumina lumânării, este primul historical mystery pe care îl citesc– oare care ar fi cea mai potrivită traducere -roman polițist de inspirație istorică?
În orice caz, dacă o fi fost primul (mi-e lene să investighez) nu m-a impresionat în mod deosebit, nici ca intrigă, nici ca evocare a lui Oscar Wilde, a cărui imagine este un pic cam prea atenuată – e drept, se poate justifica prin faptul că naratorul e prieten cu Wilde, dar e frustrant de angelică caracterizarea unuia dintre scriitorii mei preferați pe care mi l-am imaginat mereu în echilibru indiferent între umbră si lumină, din cauza constrîngerilor impuse de prejudecățile epocii. Naratorul Robert Sherard însă aproape că-l transformă în victimă suspectată pe nedrept de societate doar din cauza faptului că admiră frumusețea sub orice formă si are un suflet atît de mare încît ajută pe oricine.
Mi-a plăcut să recitesc cîteva din "witticismele" lui, totuşi:
Si citatul meu preferat, pe care nu obosesc să-l spun oricui vrea să mă asculte:
În orice caz, dacă o fi fost primul (mi-e lene să investighez) nu m-a impresionat în mod deosebit, nici ca intrigă, nici ca evocare a lui Oscar Wilde, a cărui imagine este un pic cam prea atenuată – e drept, se poate justifica prin faptul că naratorul e prieten cu Wilde, dar e frustrant de angelică caracterizarea unuia dintre scriitorii mei preferați pe care mi l-am imaginat mereu în echilibru indiferent între umbră si lumină, din cauza constrîngerilor impuse de prejudecățile epocii. Naratorul Robert Sherard însă aproape că-l transformă în victimă suspectată pe nedrept de societate doar din cauza faptului că admiră frumusețea sub orice formă si are un suflet atît de mare încît ajută pe oricine.
Mi-a plăcut să recitesc cîteva din "witticismele" lui, totuşi:
După cum știi, doar cei lipsiți de imaginație dau dovadă de statornicie.
... munca este blestem pentru clasele băutoare.
Domnul Henry James scrie ficțiune de parcă asta ar fi o îndatorire dureroasă.
Atotputernicul îi iubește pe păcătoși, dar nu suportă pisălogii.
Întoarceți spatele turnului Eiffel și veți avea în fața voastră întregul Paris. Uitați-vă la el—și tot Parisul dispare.
Nu-mi luați în seamă prejudecățile ridicole. Fac parte dintre acei oameni care se apropie de cineva doar pentru că-i vede manșetele zdrențuite.
Omul nu poate fi apreciat doar după ceea ce face. Poate respecta cu strictețe legea și să fie totuși jalnic. Poate încălca legea și să fie totuși admirabil. Poate fi rău, dar fără a comite vreodată ceva rău. Poate comite păcate împotriva societății și totuși să-și atingă, prin acele păcate, propria perfecțiune…
Un bărbat trebuie să fie mereu îndrăgostit.
Si citatul meu preferat, pe care nu obosesc să-l spun oricui vrea să mă asculte:
Viața este coșmarul care ne împiedică să dormim.
February 20, 2021
It's a fun concept, executed by someone with a lot of knowledge on the subject, so it's a fun, relaxing read for those with some interest in the time and/or the characters. Full of references, wit and good conversation, it's in style with its eponymous hero - though in some moments so heavy on the references that it leans towards feeling derivative.
In regards to its mystery plot, it's in the tradition of Sherlock Holmes (openly and explicitly) moreso than modern crime fiction, and if you can handle Holmes, then you can handle Wilde being three steps ahead of the narrator at all times in the investigation while there's no time to explain, or he needs to investigate further before revealing his current findings to his Watson, in this case Robert Sherard.
The drive of the mystery plot is occasionally a bit lost in the 'world-building', biographical trivia and ambience - it loses some of its urgency, especially when the reader can only follow along to a certain extent when Wilde so often keeps details to himself. However, the ambience is also one of the novel's greatest strengths, and the solution to the mystery (without spoiling anything) is actually quite interesting, so it all resolves itself. It also, on the meta-level, would fit quite nicely into the tradition of decadent literature of which Wilde was so fond, sacrificing some of its larger structural integrity in the narrative to really enjoy and expand upon each of its parts - especially if those parts involve dining at the Albemarle.
It's basically exactly what's on the tin: it's Oscar Wilde having picked up a Sherlock Holmes book and being a big fan, calling on his friend Arthur Conan Doyle when a mystery arises, and walking the line between play-acting at being Sherlock Holmes (with his Watson in tow), solving an actual murder quite skillfully, while being his fabulous self the whole time - all written by someone who clearly knows a lot about the man and the time. If that sounds fun to you, you'll likely love it!
In regards to its mystery plot, it's in the tradition of Sherlock Holmes (openly and explicitly) moreso than modern crime fiction, and if you can handle Holmes, then you can handle Wilde being three steps ahead of the narrator at all times in the investigation while there's no time to explain, or he needs to investigate further before revealing his current findings to his Watson, in this case Robert Sherard.
The drive of the mystery plot is occasionally a bit lost in the 'world-building', biographical trivia and ambience - it loses some of its urgency, especially when the reader can only follow along to a certain extent when Wilde so often keeps details to himself. However, the ambience is also one of the novel's greatest strengths, and the solution to the mystery (without spoiling anything) is actually quite interesting, so it all resolves itself. It also, on the meta-level, would fit quite nicely into the tradition of decadent literature of which Wilde was so fond, sacrificing some of its larger structural integrity in the narrative to really enjoy and expand upon each of its parts - especially if those parts involve dining at the Albemarle.
It's basically exactly what's on the tin: it's Oscar Wilde having picked up a Sherlock Holmes book and being a big fan, calling on his friend Arthur Conan Doyle when a mystery arises, and walking the line between play-acting at being Sherlock Holmes (with his Watson in tow), solving an actual murder quite skillfully, while being his fabulous self the whole time - all written by someone who clearly knows a lot about the man and the time. If that sounds fun to you, you'll likely love it!
September 1, 2020
Ok, as you might already know, I'm not a fan of mysteries or gore. And I'm leery of using a real person as a fictional character, esp. one we know so much about. But I took a chance because Brandreth did his research and used Oscar respectfully.
And it was great fun!
I think, if one does want to attempt to solve the mystery oneself, there's a chance that some of the pieces can be put together before the presentation (by Oscar to most of the interested parties including those suspects still alive).
Also there was indeed lots of wit & insight from Oscar, and Robert was an excellent foil & chronicler. And I appreciate that there wasn't too much sensory detail making this era of London come alive, as that would've been too much for my sensitivities. ;)
A map might have come in handy, as the action wasn't confined to London.
"Prayers must never be answered, Robert! If prayers are answered, they cease to be prayers and become correspondence..."
I own the sequel but I'm not sure if I want to read it, as my itch for the 'world-building' was scratched by this.
I bought both at the Friends of the Library sale; I wonder who in this redneck bible-thumping community owned them before me....
And it was great fun!
I think, if one does want to attempt to solve the mystery oneself, there's a chance that some of the pieces can be put together before the presentation (by Oscar to most of the interested parties including those suspects still alive).
Also there was indeed lots of wit & insight from Oscar, and Robert was an excellent foil & chronicler. And I appreciate that there wasn't too much sensory detail making this era of London come alive, as that would've been too much for my sensitivities. ;)
A map might have come in handy, as the action wasn't confined to London.
"Prayers must never be answered, Robert! If prayers are answered, they cease to be prayers and become correspondence..."
I own the sequel but I'm not sure if I want to read it, as my itch for the 'world-building' was scratched by this.
I bought both at the Friends of the Library sale; I wonder who in this redneck bible-thumping community owned them before me....
November 17, 2019
I loved the concept--Oscar Wilde and Arthur Conan Doyle solving a mystery--and it's somewhat unfair to compare the wit and dialogue of a fictional Wilde with the real genius. It starts promisingly, and has some funny lines and scenes, but the mystery lacks the kind of juicy, puzzling setup of Doyle's best works to be really compelling. The minor characters are never developed, and they are often what makes a mystery come to life. In this book Wilde himself is curiously...heterosexual, with his fondness for rent boys only coyly referenced. Even if the central character wasn't a gay icon, I'd be annoyed, but why write an Oscar Wilde detective without referencing his love of men openly?
Three stars because I might try another book in the series. They reviews suggest they do improve a bit, and I have never thought the first book of any mystery series (including my beloved Sherlock Holmes) was its best.
But overall, insufficiently gay and outrageous for my taste.
Three stars because I might try another book in the series. They reviews suggest they do improve a bit, and I have never thought the first book of any mystery series (including my beloved Sherlock Holmes) was its best.
But overall, insufficiently gay and outrageous for my taste.
December 8, 2008
From ISawLightningFall.com
TWO-AND-A-HALF STARS
What do you want to be when you grow up? When we’re young, it’s the question with a hundred answers. A fireman one day, a nurse the next, an astronaut after that. But time and talent and circumstance eventually push a sole option to the forefront, the rest receding to become favorite hobbies or fond memories. That this singular option consumes the majority of our time and energy should comes as no surprise, for it’s difficult to do one thing well, let alone two or three. Would that Gyles Brandreth -- author of the literary tribute cum historical mystery Oscar Wilde and a Death of No Importance -- had understood that this also holds true for novels.
The premise is promising: Oscar Wilde, the playboy poet of Victorian England, enters a rented room in No. 23 Cowley Street on a warm day in late August and discovers the ritualistically murdered body of one Billy Wood, a young male prostitute. Wilde flees and, after gathering witnesses, returns to find all evidence of the crime has vanished. He may be a man more used to ink than ichor, but he doesn’t plan on letting this one go unsolved. With the aid of Robert Sherard (great-grandson of William Wordsworth) and Arthur Conan Doyle (creator of Sherlock Holmes), Wilde plans to bust the conundrum wide open.
The execution, though, trips up A Death of No Importance. First, there are the minor irritations, such as Brandreth’s idiosyncratic use of em dashes (which must have driven his editor mad) and the fact that Sherard, to whom falls narration duty, is just uninvolved enough in the proceedings to make one question why he was included at all. But what really sends the book sprawling is inadequate blending of the historical with the mysterious. Wilde’s life was marked by impulsiveness and extravagance, two characteristics that don’t mesh well with criminal investigation. One moment he’s tracking down some vital bit of info, only to be interrupted by a ferocious desire for oysters and champagne. A return to unraveling the murder most foul ends up diverted by a jaunt to Oxford. Then Wilde takes a two-month sabbatical to write The Picture of Dorian Gray. Compelling genre work it’s not, which is a shame because somewhere in the novel there’s a worthy study of a literary icon or an interesting mystery -- but not both.
TWO-AND-A-HALF STARS
What do you want to be when you grow up? When we’re young, it’s the question with a hundred answers. A fireman one day, a nurse the next, an astronaut after that. But time and talent and circumstance eventually push a sole option to the forefront, the rest receding to become favorite hobbies or fond memories. That this singular option consumes the majority of our time and energy should comes as no surprise, for it’s difficult to do one thing well, let alone two or three. Would that Gyles Brandreth -- author of the literary tribute cum historical mystery Oscar Wilde and a Death of No Importance -- had understood that this also holds true for novels.
The premise is promising: Oscar Wilde, the playboy poet of Victorian England, enters a rented room in No. 23 Cowley Street on a warm day in late August and discovers the ritualistically murdered body of one Billy Wood, a young male prostitute. Wilde flees and, after gathering witnesses, returns to find all evidence of the crime has vanished. He may be a man more used to ink than ichor, but he doesn’t plan on letting this one go unsolved. With the aid of Robert Sherard (great-grandson of William Wordsworth) and Arthur Conan Doyle (creator of Sherlock Holmes), Wilde plans to bust the conundrum wide open.
The execution, though, trips up A Death of No Importance. First, there are the minor irritations, such as Brandreth’s idiosyncratic use of em dashes (which must have driven his editor mad) and the fact that Sherard, to whom falls narration duty, is just uninvolved enough in the proceedings to make one question why he was included at all. But what really sends the book sprawling is inadequate blending of the historical with the mysterious. Wilde’s life was marked by impulsiveness and extravagance, two characteristics that don’t mesh well with criminal investigation. One moment he’s tracking down some vital bit of info, only to be interrupted by a ferocious desire for oysters and champagne. A return to unraveling the murder most foul ends up diverted by a jaunt to Oxford. Then Wilde takes a two-month sabbatical to write The Picture of Dorian Gray. Compelling genre work it’s not, which is a shame because somewhere in the novel there’s a worthy study of a literary icon or an interesting mystery -- but not both.
February 27, 2008
This is the sort of book that I almost never read. I normally don't like mysteries because of those inevitable few chapters when you've figured it out and are waiting for the characters to catch up to you. And I normally don't like books in which famous authors are the main characters, because the people who write those sort of books are never as clever as the people they are writing about, so the author as character is inevitably diminished (though I do enjoy books in which they pop up as supporting players An Instance of the Fingerpost, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell, etc.). The famous-author-solves-a-mystery genre is annoying to me for both those reasons in addition to its general silliness.
But I'd heard good things about this one, and most of them turned out to be true. It was cleverly plotted enough that I didn't figure it out until more or less right when I was supposed to. The Wilde of the book managed to seem almost as witty as the real thing, because most of his dialogue is quoted from his books (Wilde actually did test out his epigrams on friends and family before putting them into his works, Brandreth helpfully reminds us).
My main objection to the book was that, underneath everything, it seems to be constantly trying to imply that Oscar Wilde was not gay, or at least, not as gay as we'd like to believe. I can't tell if it is a combination of naivete and rationalization from and unrealiable narrator, or something the author actually wants us to believe. There is something, either in an afterword in or in the (shudder) book club guide at the end of the book, in which Brandreth objects to authors who have used Oscar Wilde as a"gay martyr" which makes me suspicious (wherever it is, it's near his justification for letting Wilde write his own diaolgue).
I need some one else to read this and let me know if I'm crazy.
But I'd heard good things about this one, and most of them turned out to be true. It was cleverly plotted enough that I didn't figure it out until more or less right when I was supposed to. The Wilde of the book managed to seem almost as witty as the real thing, because most of his dialogue is quoted from his books (Wilde actually did test out his epigrams on friends and family before putting them into his works, Brandreth helpfully reminds us).
My main objection to the book was that, underneath everything, it seems to be constantly trying to imply that Oscar Wilde was not gay, or at least, not as gay as we'd like to believe. I can't tell if it is a combination of naivete and rationalization from and unrealiable narrator, or something the author actually wants us to believe. There is something, either in an afterword in or in the (shudder) book club guide at the end of the book, in which Brandreth objects to authors who have used Oscar Wilde as a"gay martyr" which makes me suspicious (wherever it is, it's near his justification for letting Wilde write his own diaolgue).
I need some one else to read this and let me know if I'm crazy.
January 15, 2013
I heard this book was a franchise, so assumed it must be good. I do love Oscar Wilde, ADORE Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and it was an interesting premise, but the character of Oscar was so annoying, you honestly were HOPING he'd get beaten up, or thrown down the stairs, or stuffed in a wooden box, just to get that sarcastic, arrogance arse of his in gear and stop being so flowery and gossipy, and superficial, like the matron of a hen house. The narrator did nothing for me, and came off as an idiotic version of Watson, but far less appealing than even the Nigel Bruce version from the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes' movies.
The only points I'm giving it are based on it being MOSTLY historically accurate, with a few things that made me cringe and wonder why the hell didn't the author bother to look some of this stuff, as it's so easy to disapprove his authenticity by simply going on google and checking out a few sites.
Overall, I was disappointed, but it made me appreciate the next book I read that WAS amazing, all the more. Don't waste your time on this one, unless you love reading Oscar Wilde quotes, are curious about the history of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's life, and how some of the Sherlock Holmes stories came to be. Actually, if you care about any of that, just read 'The Sherlockian' by Graham Moore. a much better read.
The only points I'm giving it are based on it being MOSTLY historically accurate, with a few things that made me cringe and wonder why the hell didn't the author bother to look some of this stuff, as it's so easy to disapprove his authenticity by simply going on google and checking out a few sites.
Overall, I was disappointed, but it made me appreciate the next book I read that WAS amazing, all the more. Don't waste your time on this one, unless you love reading Oscar Wilde quotes, are curious about the history of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's life, and how some of the Sherlock Holmes stories came to be. Actually, if you care about any of that, just read 'The Sherlockian' by Graham Moore. a much better read.
March 28, 2015
This is my second Oscar Wilde mystery novel and Gyles Brandreth has done a great job in developing Oscar Wilde’s character, whose brilliant mind with its razor-sharp witticisms, mercurial personality and utter zest for life is engaging and endearing. In this first of the series book, Brandreth introduces us to Wilde, Arthur Conan Doyle and Robert Sherrard, the narrator. A young boy, whose background is questionable, is found murdered. Oscar Wilde discovers the bloody body, but flees. However, he returns with his friends Doyle and Sherrard, the body has mysteriously disappeared. So begins the search for the murderer and with Wilde’s powers of observations, deductions and canniness we know he’s going to get there…but how? An enjoyable read for a mystery lover and doubly so if you’re a lover of all things Oscar Wilde.
July 29, 2010
Still not sure what I thought of this. Interesting the way the author brought in Arthur Conan Doyle and had Wilde be enthusiastic about ACD's new story and adopt Sherlockian methods to solve the crime - in fact Wilde can outdo Sherlock when it comes to deduction through observation- plus the author had Doyle be influenced by Wilde in the further development of his Holmes and Mycroft characters.
I did guess pretty close on the solution before the big reveal. The period feel was good and the character of Wilde was well developed. I felt the author went a little too far out of his way to insist that his Wilde was definitely not gay or bi to the point where it became annoying. I have the second book in the series on my TBR but don't feel the need to rush out and read it right away.
I did guess pretty close on the solution before the big reveal. The period feel was good and the character of Wilde was well developed. I felt the author went a little too far out of his way to insist that his Wilde was definitely not gay or bi to the point where it became annoying. I have the second book in the series on my TBR but don't feel the need to rush out and read it right away.
January 21, 2017
three stars means "liked it" and that's accurate. the mystery had interesting elements, and the historical detail is fascinating. I liked Oscar Wilde as a character, which made me feel sad about how his life ended up. I feel like the author was struggling with how to represent Oscar's (romantic/sexual) feelings towards men. I also wasn't crazy about narrator Robert Sherard, whose character consists almost entirely of his relationships with women (read: women who aren't his wife; women who are engaged to other men - not to make a moral complaint, but just that he seemed so out of control & stupid). meanwhile, the female characters are kind of like scenery. a great reminder that for everything that's wrong with the world today, we have come pretty far. sigh
May 22, 2018
I had wanted to read this book for a long time, so I was very excited when I finally got my hands on it. Sadly, it turned out to be a big bore! Gyles Brandreth keeps mentioning how Oscar Wilde was a genius, but the way he's written the character, Oscar Wilde comes across as someone who's gone cuckoo in the head. After discovering the dead body of a boy that he knew and was fond of, Wilde does not inform anyone but instead, goes on to have a magnificent meal. I'm not going to say anything more. This book was a drag.
July 24, 2022
Murder mystery could’ve been a short story. Pages and pages with nothing to do with the murder mystery. Most of book was about the day to day life of Oscar Wilde - what he ate, his friends and social encounters, where he went and his witticisms. Great for Oscar Wilde fans, not so much for the rest of us. Boring boring boring.
December 6, 2017
Onvan : Oscar Wilde and a Death of No Importance - Nevisande : Gyles Brandreth - ISBN : 1416551743 - ISBN13 : 9781416551744 - Dar 368 Safhe - Saal e Chap : 2007
Displaying 1 - 30 of 529 reviews