Oscar Wilde : a plea and a reminiscence

Alfred Douglas, Caspar Wintermans

In 1895, Lord Alfred Douglas wrote an article for the Mercure de France in defense of his incarcerated friend, Oscar Wilde. The piece was nothing if not outspoken and included some love-letters from Wilde to Douglas. The article was withdrawn and never published. Its original manuscript was lost, but a manuscript copy of the French translation was found, retranslated into English, and published here for the first time, along with Douglas's reminiscences of Wilde's last years in Paris.