The Marquess of Queensberry

The Marquess of Queensberry is as famous for his role in the downfall of one of our greatest literary geniuses as he was for helping establish the rules for modern-day boxing. The trial and two-year imprisonment of Oscar Wilde, lover of Queensberrys son, Lord Alfred Douglas, remains one of literary historys great tragedies. However, Linda Stratmann's riveting biography of the Marquess paints a far more complex picture by drawing on new sources and unpublished letters. Throughout his life, Queensberry was emotionally damaged by a series of tragedies, and the events of the Wilde affairtold for the first time from the Marquesss perspectivewere directly linked to Queensberrys personal crises. Through the retelling of pivotal events from Queensberrys lifethe death of his brother on the Matterhorn and his fruitless search for the body; the suicides of his father, brother, and eldest sonthe book reveals a well-meaning man often stricken with a grief he found hard to express, who deserves our compassion.