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 was even named godmother to their son, Raymond Wilfred Sholto Douglas, born on 17 November 1902. The marriage was stormy after Douglas became a Roman Catholic in 1911. They separated in 1913, lived together for a time in the 1920s after Olive also converted, and then lived apart after she gave up Catholicism. The health of their only child further strained the marriage, which by the end of the 1920s was all but over, although they never divorced. In 1911, Douglas embraced Roman Catholicism, as Wilde had done earlier. More than a decade after Wilde's death, with the release of