The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde is a 1983 novel by Peter Ackroyd. It won the Somerset Maugham Award in 1984. The novel is written in the form of a diary which Oscar Wilde was writing in Paris in 1900, up to his death. The diary itself is completely fictional, as is the detail contained, although the events and most of the characters (such as the characters of Lord Alfred Douglas, Robert Ross and the Earl of Rosebery and his incarceration, at Pentonville, later Reading) are real. In this diary he looks back at
The Manuscripts of Oscar Wilde and drafts by Wilde, supported by a nearly complete collection of printed editions of his works make useful research material for modern biographers. Original photographs, caricatures, theatre programs, and news cuttings are available. In looking over the material it can be seen that the image of the indolent Wilde, carefree and idle for much of the time, is misleading, although in some sense it is a myth that was perpetuated by the author himself. Wilde had two plays running in London's West End before the scandal erupted. Rehearsals for "The Importance of Being Earnest" even took place on Christmas Day,