Cuando el autor se convierte en personaje"The last testament of Oscar Wilde" de Peter Ackroyd

Abstract

In his second novel, The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde (1983), Peter Ackroyd offers his particular version of the last months of Wilde's life in Paris. The protagonist writes a journal about the main events of his biography and work, adopting a confessio rial tone. Thus, the reader gets a different image of the Irish playwright, whose human dirnension is highlighted in this narrative. Peter Ackroyd reinrerprets Wilde's figure working on the basis of both biographical data and, most importandy, material written by Oscar \X/ilde himself. Gonsequently, we find in The Last Testament traces of two of the most relevant Wildean texts: The Picture of Donan Gray and De Profundis. This paper aims at examlníng and illustrating the textual strategies Ackroyd employs in the characterization of his fictional Wilde.