Matthew Sturgis

Biographer Matthew Sturgis sheds new light on the life of Oscar Wilde in the first major new biography of the writer in 30 years.

Sturgis approaches his subject from the point of view of a historian rather than a literary critic, setting Wilde in the context of his times. He spent six years researching the biography, which covers his entire life including his birth in Dublin, his time in Paris, spells in prison and the young woman to whom he lost his heart. The work includes a new focus on little known periods including schooldays at Portora, his relationship with George Whistler and his editorship of Woman’s World. Wilde was Irish and educated at Magdalen College, Oxford.

Sturgis is a writer with a particular enthusiasm for the cultural world of the late 19th century. He has written biographies of Aubrey Beardsley and Walter Sickert and contributes to the journal of the Oscar Wilde Society, The Wildean.