"If equal affection cannot be
Let the more loving one be me."
--W.H. Auden
Oscar Wilde's relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas has inspired
contemporary writers for decades. In his heartbreaking account of love
tested to destruction, David Hare presents his powerful interpretation
of what may have happened behind closed doors between Wilde and Douglas.
The Judas Kiss lays bare the drama of two critical moments in Wilde's
last years: the day he decides to stay in England and face imprisonment,
and the night after his release, two years later, when the lover for
whom he risked and lost everything betrays him.
With a quiet but burning sense of outrage, The Judas Kiss presents the
consequences of taking an uncompromisingly moral position in a world
defined by fear, expedience, and conformity.