The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde his life, writing, and ruin through trial and gaol. Included are fairy tales much like those Wilde wrote, although again these are wholly Ackroyd's invention. The last pages are written in the character of Maurice, Wilde's valet. 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
Oscar Wilde which can be good character sketches, but are sometimes factually unreliable. Frank Harris, his friend and editor, wrote a biography, "Oscar Wilde: His Life and Confessions" (1916); though prone to exaggeration and sometimes factually inaccurate, it offers a good literary portrait of Wilde. Lord Alfred Douglas wrote two books about his relationship with Wilde. "Oscar Wilde and Myself" (1914), largely ghost-written by T. W. H. Crosland, vindictively reacted to Douglas's discovery that "De Profundis" was addressed to him and defensively tried to distance him from Wilde's scandalous reputation. Both authors later regretted their work. Later, in "Oscar Wilde: A Summing