Chapter 8, Countering the Renaissance Summary

When Wilde returns to London, his wallet is fat with his American lecture tour earnings, and his mind is full of interesting stories to tell. Whistler has taken on Rennell Rodd as his favorite over Wilde, which is awkward because of Oscar's treatment of Rodd's book when it went to publication. He had written the introduction, basically usurping the book as his own. At the end of January 1883, Wilde goes to Paris with the intent of finishing his play, The Duchess of Padua.

At home with French literature and the writers of the day who made Paris their home, Wilde takes up with a young, but doltish, Englishman named Robert Harborough Sherard. Sherard is to become Oscar's biographer, albeit not a good one. At first Sherard does not like Wilde, thinking of him as an imposter, but...