"The study illuminates in meticulous detail the paradoxical relationship between forgery and authenticity in the Wildean sense: a good fake makes a good original. In four chapters Mackie maps out the structures of the meta-canon of Wilde’s literary afterlife."
Katharina Herold, The Wildean
"Beautiful Untrue Things offers an insightful and fascinating exploration of Wilde’s many afterlives. Through well-selected case studies, Mackie illuminates key forgers, while introducing a myriad of others for further and future exploration. For readers new to Wilde and unfamiliar with his literary and theatrical oeuvre, Mackie offers necessary background to introduce his life and writing. For scholars of Wilde, Victorian literature, or Modernism, Beautiful Untrue Things provides an incisive discussion of this key figure, by both resituating him within his cultural context and reframing him for twenty-first century readers."
Brittany Reid, The Ormsby Review
"Mackie's study is certainly both extensively researched and beautifully written; his own fandom may be sensed in his allusive prose and clever headings. This book represents a substantial contribution to the study of Wilde's afterlife and itself demonstrates the attraction of adding to Wilde's story."
Aaron Eames, Romance, Revolution & Reform
"Beautiful Untrue Things offers an insightful and fascinating exploration of Wilde’s many afterlives. Through well-selected case studies, Mackie illuminates key forgers, while introducing a myriad of others for further and future exploration. For readers new to Wilde and unfamiliar with his literary and theatrical oeuvre, Mackie offers necessary background to introduce his life and writing. For scholars of Wilde, Victorian literature, or Modernism, Beautiful Untrue Things provides an incisive discussion of this key figure, by both resituating him within his cultural context and reframing him for twenty-first century readers. By focusing on the forgers rather than the forged subject, Mackie details the processes of myth-making and not their hagiographic results."
Brittany Reid, The Ormsby Review
"Gregory Mackie treats the reader to stories attesting to the profound interest that Wilde’s persona and literary output generated even decades after his death. And aside from the cult of authorial personality, the study also documents those elements of Wilde’s style – the epigrammatic wit, the droll dependence on paradox – that made it ideal for pastiche or forgery."
Rebecca N. Mitchell, Department of English, University of Birmingham
"Gregory Mackie has translated an almost dizzying amount of archival research into a study that is both entertaining and illuminating. Squarely trained on Oscar Wilde, Beautiful Untrue Things surprises by looking for things decidedly not-Wilde. Mackie has, in other words, crafted a book rich in original insights by using a new lens: Wilde forgeries."
Ellen Crowell, Department of English, Saint Louis University
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