By 25 November 1900, Wilde had developed meningitis, then called "cerebral meningitis". Robbie Ross arrived on 29 November, sent for a priest, and Wilde was conditionally baptised into the Catholic Church by Fr Cuthbert Dunne, a Passionist priest from Dublin, [226] [227] Wilde having been baptised in the Church of Ireland and having moreover a recollection of Catholic baptism as a child, a fact later attested to by the minister of the sacrament, Fr Lawrence Fox. [228] Fr Dunne recorded the baptism: Kilfeather, Siobhán Marie (2005). Dublin, a Cultural History. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-518202-6. Robert Ross, in his letter to More Adey (dated 14 December 1900), described a similar scene: "(Wilde) was conscious that people were in the room, and raised his hand when I asked him whether he understood. He pressed our hands. I then went in search of a priest and with great difficulty found Fr Cuthbert Dunne, of the Passionists, who came with me at once and administered Baptism and Extreme Unction – Oscar could not take the Eucharist". [230] Queensberry was arrested for criminal libel, a charge carrying a possible sentence of up to two years in prison. Under the 1843 Libel Act, Queensberry could avoid conviction for libel only by demonstrating that his accusation was in fact true, and furthermore that there was some "public benefit" to having made the accusation openly. [169] Queensberry's lawyers thus hired private detectives to find evidence of Wilde's homosexual liaisons. [170] Clayworth, Anna (Summer 1997). " 'The Woman's World': Oscar Wilde as Editor: 1996 Vanarsdel Prize". Victorian Periodicals Review. 30 (2): 84–101. JSTOR 20082977.

The book had further printings in 1882. It was bound in a rich, enamel parchment cover (embossed with gilt blossom) and printed on hand-made Dutch paper; over the next few years, Wilde presented many copies to the dignitaries and writers who received him during his lecture tours. [69] North America: 1882 Wilde lectured on the "English Renaissance in Art" during his US and Canada tour in 1882. Main article: The Picture of Dorian Gray Plaque commemorating the dinner between Wilde, Arthur Conan Doyle and the publisher of Lippincott's Monthly Magazine on 30 August 1889 at the Langham Hotel, London, that led to Wilde writing The Picture of Dorian Gray Moran, Leslie (2002). The Homosexual(ity) of law. Routledge. p.47. ISBN 978-1-134-89645-5. Archived from the original on 18 August 2020 . Retrieved 6 November 2018. Varty, Anne, ed. (2000). Collected Poems of Oscar Wilde. Ware: Wordsworth Poetry Library. p.vi. ISBN 1853264539. Archived from the original on 3 August 2021 . Retrieved 23 August 2020.

Cox, Devon (2015). The Street of Wonderful Possibilities: Whistler, Wilde & Sargent in Tite Street. London: Frances Lincoln. ISBN 978-0-7112-3673-8. I suppose society is wonderfully delightful. To be in it is merely a bore. But to be out of it simply a tragedy. The Oscar Wilde Memorial walk in Reading includes gates with cultural references to Wilde (the outside wall of the Gaol is to the left) Lord Alfred's father, the Marquess of Queensberry, was known for his outspoken atheism, brutish manner and creation of the modern rules of boxing. [d] Queensberry, who feuded regularly with his son, confronted Wilde and Lord Alfred about the nature of their relationship several times, but Wilde was able to mollify him. In June 1894, he called on Wilde at 16 Tite Street, without an appointment, and clarified his stance: "I do not say that you are it, but you look it, and pose at it, which is just as bad. And if I catch you and my son again in any public restaurant I will thrash you" to which Wilde responded: "I don't know what the Queensberry rules are, but the Oscar Wilde rule is to shoot on sight". [155] His account in De Profundis was less triumphant: "It was when, in my library at Tite Street, waving his small hands in the air in epileptic fury, your father... stood uttering every foul word his foul mind could think of, and screaming the loathsome threats he afterwards with such cunning carried out". [156] [157] Queensberry only described the scene once, saying Wilde had "shown him the white feather", meaning he had acted in a cowardly way. [157] Though trying to remain calm, Wilde saw that he was becoming ensnared in a brutal family quarrel. He did not wish to bear Queensberry's insults, but he knew to confront him could lead to disaster were his liaisons disclosed publicly. As a spokesman for aestheticism, he tried his hand at various literary activities: he published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on the new "English Renaissance in Art" and interior decoration, and then returned to London where he worked prolifically as a journalist. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversational skill, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day. At the turn of the 1890s he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into what would be his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). The opportunity to construct aesthetic details precisely, and combine them with larger social themes, drew Wilde to write drama. He wrote Salome (1891) in French while in Paris, but it was refused a licence for England due to an absolute prohibition on the portrayal of Biblical subjects on the English stage. Undiscouraged, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late-Victorian London.

The Importance of Being Earnest': The first stage production, 1895". Victoria and Albert Museum. Archived from the original on 8 June 2021 . Retrieved 20 July 2021.Between January and March 1897 Wilde wrote a 50,000-word letter to Douglas. He was not allowed to send it, but was permitted to take it with him when released from prison. [204] In reflective mode, Wilde coldly examines his career to date, how he had been a colourful agent provocateur in Victorian society, his art, like his paradoxes, seeking to subvert as well as sparkle. His own estimation of himself was: one who "stood in symbolic relations to the art and culture of my age". [205] It was from these heights that his life with Douglas began, and Wilde examines that particularly closely, repudiating him for what Wilde finally sees as his arrogance and vanity: he had not forgotten Douglas' remark, when he was ill, "When you are not on your pedestal you are not interesting." [206] Wilde blamed himself, though, for the ethical degradation of character that he allowed Douglas to bring about in him, and took responsibility for his own fall: "I am here for having tried to put your father in prison." [163] The first half concludes with Wilde forgiving Douglas, for his own sake as much as Douglas's. The second half of the letter traces Wilde's spiritual journey of redemption and fulfilment through his prison reading. He realised that his ordeal had filled his soul with the fruit of experience, however bitter it tasted at the time. Spoo, Robert (2018). Modernism and the Law. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4742-7580-4. Archived from the original on 18 August 2020 . Retrieved 28 November 2019. Dugdale, John (26 September 2009). "Oscar's Books by Thomas Wright". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 28 October 2011 . Retrieved 22 February 2010. Later on, I think everyone will recognise his achievements; his plays and essays will endure. Of course, you may think with others that his personality and conversation were far more wonderful than anything he wrote, so that his written works give only a pale reflection of his power. Perhaps that is so, and of course, it will be impossible to reproduce what is gone forever. Chisholm, Hugh (1911). "Wilde, Oscar O'Flahertie Wills". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol.28 (11thed.). pp.632–633.