The Green Carnation The Green Carnation The Green Carnation, first published anonymously in 1894, was a scandalous novel by Robert Hichens whose lead characters are closely based on Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas – also known as "Bosie", whom the author personally knew. It was an instant "succès de scandale" on both sides of the Atlantic. The reviewer for "The Observer" wrote, ""The Green Carnation" will be read and discussed by everyone... nothing so impudent, so bold, or so delicious has been printed these many years." The book features the characters of "Esmé Amarinth" (Wilde), and "Lord Reginald (Reggie) Hastings" (Douglas). The
Lord Alfred Douglas in June he was again decertified. His conduct rapidly deteriorated and he returned to St Andrew's in November. He he stayed there until his death on 10 October 1964. He never married. Douglas died of congestive heart failure in Lancing, Sussex, on 20 March 1945 at the age of 74. He was buried on 23 March at the Franciscan Friary, Crawley, where he is interred alongside his mother, who had died on 31 October 1935 at the age of 91. A single gravestone covers them. The elderly Douglas, living in reduced circumstances in Hove in the 1940s, is mentioned in