Oscar
Walt Whitman introduces Wilde’s story. In London in 1895, hotel managers refuse Wilde rooms under pressure from the Marquess of Queensberry’s detectives. Ada Leverson and Frank Harris urge him to escape to France, but Wilde decides to stay for the trial. He is convicted of gross indecency and sentenced to two years’ hard labour. In Reading Gaol, he endures the prison regime, receives kindness from fellow prisoners and warder Martin, and witnesses the execution of another prisoner. Harris’s advocacy improves his conditions; Leverson visits and tells him he will soon be free. Wilde and Bosie part, and Whitman presents him to the Immortals.