Oscar Wilde was the wittiest, most famous - and most infamous - writer and figure of his time. His fiction, essays, plays, and sparkling bon mots still enthral us, while his obsessive, forbidden love and tragic trials continue to haunt us. The Modern Art of Influence and the Spectacle of Oscar Wilde investigates the rich, complex work and tumultuous life of this unique artist and individual, his colorful era, his vibrant milieu of artists, scandalous women and men, Jews, and other "others," the mass frenzy that surrounded him, and the implications of all that is "Wilde" for us today.