Bosie: A Biography of Lord Alfred Douglas

I'm sure this hardback is cheaper than the paperback I bought back in 2022. Excellent book, very enlightening, excellent biographer who does a great job being objective about a very controversial person and a person who was very antagonistic (the keynote of Lord Alfred Douglas's personality above all else). I came away from this book feeling the tragedy of LAD's life was that he didn't devote himself more seriously to his poetry.

I ordered this book after seeing the movie "Wilde" with Stephen Frye as Wilde and Jude Law as Bosie, in which Bosie is portrayed as a shallow, cruel, young cad, who cared only for himself and left Wilde in the lurch as soon as the times got hard. I thought to myself so why would Wilde care so deeply for such a person; and the answer is that Alfred Douglas was NOT such a person. As Murray makes clear, of Wilde's many friends, Douglas alone stuck with Wilde during and after the trial, as well as financed Wilde's defence. He waited in exile in Europe for Wilde for the two years of Wilde's sentence, and when Wilde was released from prison, Douglas cared for Wilde and lived with him in Italy at his own expense. He left Wilde ONLY when the Douglas family threatened to cut off his allowance--the only money either he or Wilde had since Wilde had no income at all and neither man could get a job or publish anything, even OUT of homophobic England on the supposedly more liberal continent. The movie implies Bosie left Wilde at that time in an idle spat, and that is simply not true. It's a very sad story, and the truth is that Wilde is the one who proved the less loving of the two--"De Profundis" is a hateful diatribe against Bosie that Bosie did not deserve. So if you want a thorough, beautifully researched biography of Alfred Douglas, this is the book. There are well-chosen period photographs of all the principal characters, and Murray quotes many of Douglas's poems which are often srikingly beautiful. Admittedly, Douglas later became a pretty sad figure in middle age, but his profound love for and caring treatment of Oscar Wilde as a young man deserves a much better portrait in the popular imagination than the movie "Wilde" paints; in fact, the movie is practically libellous (except that all are long dead, and Douglas cannot defend himself, and that's genuinely tragic). Murray includes one last photograph of Bosie, shortly before his death at 75--a withered, lonely, little old man--it's quite a shocking contrast for the boy who had been in his youth "the most beautiful man in England."

I'm an Oscar Wilde afficionado. I am fascinated with him and his times. Bosie was his great male love and OMG did they ever get in trouble. In the hypocritical Victorian times they couldn't get away with being honest lovers. No, Oscar had to go jail, while half the crown was comprised of landed males shtupping other males. Tally ho. What's just amazing about Bosie though, and this book, is that Boze stepped out of the mire and quested for meaning in life. He went far and wide, tried out heterosexuality and really, was quite the unsung poet. Check it out. He was a GREAT poet. He had to have some genius between those very pretty ears. I admire Oscar and Bosie.

I, having only read about Douglas in books that were centered on Wilde, found this biography very refreshing. I didn't realize how much life he had left after Wilde died. But, this book is for more than those who are interested in Wilde because it tells the story of a man who really just had a terrible life. Scarred after the Wilde scandal, he had to build his own life and a majority of the choices he made were bad ones. Douglas did have his redeeming qualities and I felt this biography highlighted those equally as it did his faults.

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i was always curious about the events subsequent to the death of Oscar Wilde , this book provides a very interesting insight to the life of Lord Alfred Douglas and his reflelctions on that period of his life when he was associated with Oscar Wilde, his subsequent marriage and religious conversion and the rejection in his social life in the years following Oscar Wilde's death

I'll admit I bought this book for the same reason I'm sure many people do; I was interested in Douglas because of his connection to Wilde. But Murrary's account of Douglas' life really made me come to appricate the life of a beautiful but somewhat tragic life and appricate the person Douglas was apart from Wilde. Murray is honest about Douglas and his sometime vindictive, sometimes paranoid personality and leaves no doubt that Douglas was a little narsassitic (but who of us isnt really?). But through it all I was most struck by a man who was persecuted by most of the people in his life and suffered more than he needed to for real or precieved 'wrongs'. In the end I sad for a man who at the heart of it all wanted to be loved and liked and most of his life wanted to return to the carefree state of boyhood.

The author does an amazing job of creating a picture of Lord Alfred Douglas. I have always thought of Bosie as a secondary character in the Wilde saga...Douglas Murray puts Bosie center stage and develops an understanding of the person from his youth to his death. This is one of those books you read and then feel the main character is someone you have known forever. Extremely well done.

I used to really despise the idea of Bosie as a petulant little spoilt brat. However after reading this brilliant biography of him, I feel real pity. Also, I hadn't realised that he was actually talented and that he came up with the phrase ..."the love that dare not speak it's name", which, had he written nothing else, it'd be worth remembering him for. One of the things that intrigued me about Bosie is that he lived for a long time after Wilde's death. The world changed around him and in the end he died impoverished. A great read.

I bought this biography after my interest in the writer, Douglas Murray, was piqued by seeing him on a discussion programme. He shone amongst the panel and was so beautifully articulate and intelligent that I wanted to know more. This book is no disappointment and to think he wrote it on his gap year is incredible. Since reading this I have gone on to read every book he has published and all are so excellent that I dare say I would read a washing machine manual Igbo a Murray had penned it.

perfect thanks

Well written and enjoyable biodraphy

Excellent read. Recommended.