Chapter 5, Setting Sail Summary

Oscar Wilde graduates Oxford on November 28, 1878. He tries to find a job, and as is often the case with today's college graduates, he has a difficult time. Missing the college atmosphere, he naturally tries to find a position with Oxford but with no success. He tries other projects that do not go anywhere, and he ends up editing Volumes X and XI of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. He does win acceptance in London with his talking wit and began living with Frank Miles, an artist known for doing complimentary female portraits.

Lillie Langtry becomes one of Wilde's female friends and a subject for his admiration and poetry. He encourages her to become an actress while his own interest in writing for the theater increases. He befriends other actresses, hoping to someday write for them. His first play is Vera, and...