By Renato Miracco. Introduction by Philip Kennicott.
Italy as a haven of gay liberty: a grand tour with Oscar Wilde, featuring previously unseen photographs and archival materials
In Oscar Wilde’s Italian Dream 1875–1900, leading Wilde scholar Renato Miracco combines written research with previously unseen visual material ranging from Wilde’s earliest heady trips to Italy as an Oxford student to recently released court documents from his trial and his final days in France and Italy in 1900, after his incarceration in Reading Gaol, and his voluntary exile from Britain. Italy, and the larger world beyond London, was essential to the sensitivity and awareness of Wilde’s identity, his contributions to prison reform and his challenges to social norms and sexual stereotypes in his last years. It also offered a great deal of sexual liberty compared to the oppressive moral atmosphere of England at that time.
The previously unseen images Miracco has incorporated in this volume (including photos that Wilde received from the gay German photographer Wilhelm von Gloeden) are mainly from private collections, and together with letters, reminiscences and magazine and newspaper articles (along with derogatory articles about Wilde from the Italian press) they play a key role in placing Wilde’s character, and an entire generation, in a complex context. Oscar Wilde’s Italian Dream 1875–1900 is a major addition to the canon of one of the world’s greatest literary figures.
Renato Miracco (born 1953) is an Italian art critic and curator. He was awarded the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic for Cultural Achievements in 2018. He served as Cultural Attaché for the Italian Embassy in Washington from 2010 to 2018 and as advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Italy. Miracco has curated major exhibitions for Tate Modern in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and London’s Estorick Collection. His passion for Wilde dates from the early 1980s when he wrote his first essay on Wilde’s time in Italy. This new book on Wilde is based on new materials that Miracco has found over the last few years.
Featured spread is from 'Oscar Wilde's Italian Dream 1875–1900.'
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Edmund White
Miracco has brought to life the obscure finale of Oscar Wilde’s existence . We thought we knew everything about Oscar Wilde but Miracco has added a whole new chapter of pain and pleasure.
Telegraph
Merlin Holland
As far as I’m aware, these things have not been published before. Most of the research into Oscar’s life has been done by Americans or English. Less has been done by Italians. The problem with dealing with Oscar is that one really needs to be probably trilingual in order to know everything. So it's not surprising that these things haven't been uncovered. [...] It’s an interesting light on Oscar’s life in Naples between September 1897 and January 1898.
Telegraph
Dalya Alberg
Oscar Wilde's early death was predicted by a fortune teller and the writer agreed he had fulfilled his ‘destiny’, new documents reveal. His comments appeared in an Italian article published in 1908 which has been translated into English for the first time in a new book.
Interview
Mitchell Nugent
Oscar Wilde’s Italian Dream 1875-1900 satiates the appetite for a beach holiday like a sip of an Aperol Spritz on the Amalfi Coast.
El Pais
Diego Parrado
In Oscar Wilde’s Italian Dream ... art critic and curator Renato Miracco reminds us that Paris was not the only place where the author of The Portrait of Dorian Gray lived out his tragedy. Focusing on his years in exile, the book reconstructs with letters, photographs and newspaper clippings the trips to Italy with which Wilde alternated his stays in Paris following his release from prison .... The book invites you to follow Wilde’s footsteps in Italy ... where he explored its myths, decadently decorated hotels, expensive restaurants and guided tours.
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Celebrate Oscar Wilde's birthday Friday, October 16 at 6PM ET with a virtual event presented by Paula Cooper Gallery and 192 Books! Renato Miracco will discuss his new book, Oscar Wilde's Italian Dream 1875–1900, with Edmund White, live-streamed on PCG Studio. There is no login or rsvp required. A recording will be posted shortly afterwards. During the broadcast, please email your questions to evan@192books.com. continue to blog
Featured spreads are from Oscar Wilde's Italian Dream 1875–1900, Renato Miracco's account of Wilde's largely previously undocumented grand tour of Italy following his incarceration in Reading Gaol and subsequent exile from England. "Cast out of London, shorn of his respectability and reduced to penury," Philip Kennicott writes in the Introduction, "Wilde wasn’t just an international scandal, he was face to face with the multiplicity of identities that he had, for some time, managed to suppress under the cloak of his provocative aestheticism." Archival photographs, letters and press clippings add heft to this welcome volume of original scholarship, launching virtually tonight with a discussion between Renate Miracco and Edmund White via 192 Books. continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 6.5 x 9.5 in. / 160 pgs / 40 b&w. LIST PRICE: U.S. $29.95 LIST PRICE: CANADA $41.95 ISBN: 9788862087148 PUBLISHER: Damiani AVAILABLE: 4/7/2020 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: NA LA
Published by Damiani. By Renato Miracco. Introduction by Philip Kennicott.
Italy as a haven of gay liberty: a grand tour with Oscar Wilde, featuring previously unseen photographs and archival materials
In Oscar Wilde’s Italian Dream 1875–1900, leading Wilde scholar Renato Miracco combines written research with previously unseen visual material ranging from Wilde’s earliest heady trips to Italy as an Oxford student to recently released court documents from his trial and his final days in France and Italy in 1900, after his incarceration in Reading Gaol, and his voluntary exile from Britain. Italy, and the larger world beyond London, was essential to the sensitivity and awareness of Wilde’s identity, his contributions to prison reform and his challenges to social norms and sexual stereotypes in his last years. It also offered a great deal of sexual liberty compared to the oppressive moral atmosphere of England at that time.
The previously unseen images Miracco has incorporated in this volume (including photos that Wilde received from the gay German photographer Wilhelm von Gloeden) are mainly from private collections, and together with letters, reminiscences and magazine and newspaper articles (along with derogatory articles about Wilde from the Italian press) they play a key role in placing Wilde’s character, and an entire generation, in a complex context. Oscar Wilde’s Italian Dream 1875–1900 is a major addition to the canon of one of the world’s greatest literary figures.
Renato Miracco (born 1953) is an Italian art critic and curator. He was awarded the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic for Cultural Achievements in 2018. He served as Cultural Attaché for the Italian Embassy in Washington from 2010 to 2018 and as advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Italy. Miracco has curated major exhibitions for Tate Modern in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and London’s Estorick Collection. His passion for Wilde dates from the early 1980s when he wrote his first essay on Wilde’s time in Italy. This new book on Wilde is based on new materials that Miracco has found over the last few years.
