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From the introduction:
As Wilde was led down
from the Old Bailey on 25 May 1895, men were
up on ladders painting out his name from the hoardings announcing
his
plays. Two years with hard labour; it was the harshest sentence
the
judge could give for the crime. The aim of society was clear; Oscar
Wilde was to be obliterated. The Reading Standard did not quite
join
in the general condemnation: it called for, at the least, another
trial. “With regard to general feeling, no doubt, the extreme
sentence produced surprise… It was felt that Oscar Wilde was
so
utterly ruined by what had been undoubtedly proved apart from actual
criminality, and the punishment he had undergone was so terrible
for
one on his position, that the ends of justice would be answered
if he
were allowed to take his departure to some foreign country and begin
anew.
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