Title: The thief of reason
Subtitle: Oscar Wilde and modern Ireland
Description: This new study of one of Ireland's greatest writers lays particular stress upon his Irish background.

Pine is interested in Wilde the outsider. He was an outsider not simply because of his homosexuality but also because of the particular nature of his Irish background. The Wildes were not only Protestants in a country which was growing more aggressively Catholic: they were also Protestant supporters of Irish nationalism. Thus they were in one sense outsiders by religion while in another outsiders within their own religious community.

Wilde was profoundly influenced by this ambiguous inheritance and Pine argues that it was this, as much as his homosexuality, which placed him at such an awkward angle to late Victorian society.
Subjects: Biography, English literature, History and criticism, Homes and haunts, Influence, Intellectual life, Irish authors, Modernism (Literature), English literature, irish authors, history and criticism, Wilde, oscar, 1854-1900, Ireland, intellectual life, Authors, irish, Authors, biography, Literary landmarks, Contemporary Ireland
Places: Ireland
People: Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
Time periods: 19th century, 20th century