CELTIC CHAIR LECTURE SERIES: Oscar the Irish Rebel, Wilde on Trial
Presented by the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
Admission
Free
Monday
Mar , 2015
23
7:30pm
Eastern
University of Ottawa
Lamoureux 145 Jean-Jacques Lussier - Room 124 • Ottawa
Walsh's fascinating and meticulously researched book (Oscar's Shadow) examined unpublished archival material and delves into a wealth of Irish critical studies and dramatizations of Wilde's life and sexuality.
Don’t miss Professor Eibhear Walshe, author The Diary of Mary Travers.
It is April 1895 and Oscar Wilde is on trial in London at the Old Bailey, following his libel case against the Marquess of Queensberry, and faces ruin, public disgrace and imprisonment. In County Cork, a woman called Mary Travers is following the Wilde Trials in the newspapers, increasingly troubled by the growing public outcry. Mary Travers has her own secret, her hidden connection with Oscar Wilde and his parents, William and Jane, and dreads discovery and exposure. Unknown to those around her, in 1864, as a young woman, she had been the key figure in a notorious court case in Dublin, in which she sued Jane Wilde for libel, and the resulting scandal filled the newspapers for weeks. In this new novel, The Diary of Mary Travers, this controversial case is re-imagined for the first time through the eyes of the central figure, Mary Travers, and in her diary she reveals her own part in this scandal, her unhappy home life and her intimate connection with two of the most celebrated writers of her time, William and Jane Wilde.
Further information: Paul W Birt; pwbirt@uottawa.caS
