Oscar Wilde's London and Paris
See the places where one of LGBTQ history's most dramatic stories took place: the rise of fall of great gay author and martyr Oscar Wilde.
Cost: $12. Please note that this fee helps keep our small business going during the crisis so we can get up and running right away when it is safe to bring people together again in person.
2 TYPES OF TICKETS:
Buy a ticket to attend the LIVE online event or
Buy a ticket to watch the RECORDED event when it is convenient for you: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/oscar-wildes-london-and-paris-tickets-149894623855
Can't make the live event? Buy a ticket for the recording and watch the event in your own time! Details in FAQs below.
Join us for a special SATURDAY “Zooming Through Queer Culture” event. Come see the restaurant where Wilde wined and dined his rent boys, the cafe where he lunched with Bosie and his father (!), the hotel room where he was arrested, and more!
Oscar Wilde was a man of amazing talents: he was probably the greatest wit in the history of the English language, and one of the greatest English writers in at least 3 genres: the short story, the essay, and above all, the comedy. He also, sadly, had one the greatest (and most tragic, in the precise sense of the word) falls imaginable: in the space of a few days, he went from being a playwright with 3 successful plays running—so lionized that he could chat about them with the Prince of Wales—to being a prisoner not allowed to read or write and forced to do monotonous "hard labor"—an experience that almost silenced him as a writer, and surely contributed to his dying only 5 years later, at the age of 46. And of course, all of this happened because he was (despite a marriage and 2 children) what today we call gay: his fall was brought on by a heated love affair with a beautiful but crazy young male aristocrat, Lord Alfred "Bosie" Douglas.
In short, his story is both amazing and appalling—and many of the places where it took place are still to be seen, especially in London and Paris: Wilde's famous "house beautiful" is still there—though stripped of its Wildean contents at an auction when he went bankrupt in prison— as are cafes and restaurants where famous scenes in his story took place, the country houses he rented to work on his plays (where famous fights with Bosie took places), theaters where his plays were put on, hotels where he and Bosie (and other lovers) stayed, the hotel room where he was arrested, the prisons where he was held, the hotel room in which he died—and more. So come spend an hour with Professor Lear, as he shows you the scenes on which this most riveting of personal dramas took place.
FYI—If you buy a ticket for the live event, the Zoom invite will be in your confirmation email (scroll to the bottom of the email, it's there!). If you do not receive the confirmation email, check your spam folder first, but please message us IMMEDIATELY if you don't find it and we shall send it to you directly, DO NOT WAIT until the event starts!
Speaker Bio
Prof. Andrew Lear is a renowned expert on same-sex relations in Greek and Roman antiquity. During his academic career, he taught at Harvard, Pomona College, and NYU. In recent years, he has founded Oscar Wilde Tours, the LGBTQ history and culture tour company and Shady Ladies Tours, a women's history and culture tour company. He is also working with actor/author Stephen Fry on a podcast about the "Scandals and Secrets of London's National Portrait Gallery."
When will the Zoom invite come?
The Zoom invite will be in the CONFIRMATION EMAIL from your order—IF YOU DO NOT RECEIVE IT IN YOUR CONFIRMATION EMAIL PLEASE MESSAGE US IMMEDIATELY. Subsequent to this, the Zoom invite will be sent to your email address at 48hrs, 2hrs, and 10mins before the event. PLEASE CHECK YOUR SPAM AND SOCIAL FOLDERS IF YOU DO NOT SEE THE ZOOM INVITE IN YOUR INBOX.
How do tickets for the recording work?
The event will be recorded and you can buy a ticket for the recording above. If you buy a ticket for the recording you will be emailed automatically a couple of hours after the live event with a link to the recording and a password to access it. It will be available to view for 1 week after the live event. If you do not receive the link to the recording a couple of hours after the live event please email us—sometimes Eventbrite emails can get lost in spam/social folders. If you bought a ticket for the live event but couldn't make it please email us and we will send you the link to the recording.
What time zone is the event scheduled in?
The event is scheduled for 2pm EST (i.e. New York time). You can watch it in any time zone but please adjust to the time zone you are in.