Oscar Wilde and Whistler, an image from the pen of Phil May, 1894. The caption reads: “That was an awfully [witty remark] good joke you made last / night. I wish I [had made it.] could say it was mine.’ / ‘You will [underlined] my boy. You will [underlined].’”.

Featured on PDR in the essay On Oscar Wilde and Plagiarism

Celebrated for his innovative wit, Oscar Wilde and the notion of originality are common bedfellows. The pairing, however, is not without its complications. Joseph Bristow and Rebecca N. Mitchell explore the claims of plagiarism that dogged Wilde's career, particularly as regards his relationship with that other great figure of late-19th-century Decadence, the American painter James McNeill Whistler.