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 Queensberry's son, Lord Alfred Douglas, remains one of literary history's 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Linda Stratmann's riveting biography of the Marquess paints a far more complex picture by drawing on new sources and unpublished letters.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 affair--told for the first time from the Marquess's perspective--were directly linked to Queensberry's personal crises. Through the retelling of pivotal events from Queensberry's life--the death of his brother on the Matterhorn and his fruitless search for the body; the suicides of his father, brother, and eldest son--the book reveals a well-meaning man often stricken with a grief he found hard to express, who deserves our compassion.
