He was a great father. His sons adored him. Yet as he wrote, after his release, of another criminal unfortunate, “Each man kills the thing he loves.” Or at least plays with that possibility when he sets out to destroy himself. It’s been remarked that suicide is the ultimate expression of selfishness because its perpetrator leaves all its consequences to his survivors and none to himself. Is any lesser self-harm different simply because the perpetrator suffers as well?
With his characteristic command of historical setting and empathy for the people inhabiting it, Bayard vividly shows us the consequences of Wilde’s fall from grace as they ripple across a generation of his blameless and beloved family.