A Purple Thread
A Purple Thread: The Supernatural Doom of Oscar Wilde
Even before his birth, the life of Oscar Wilde was one shaped by dark, otherworldly forces. From a childhood spent in the fabled lands of Tír na nÓg to his star-crossed romance with Lord Alfred Douglas, Wilde’s trajectory through the artistic and social worlds of his day seemed guided by strange fate, some of it prophesied in his most famous works, including Salomé and The Picture of Dorian Gray.
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Fiddler’s Green
Leaflet Zine, with black-and-white illustrations throughout, 32 pages.
About Fiddler’s Green Peculiar Parish
Fiddler’s Green Peculiar Parish Magazine was born of a languid afternoon of conversation on a sunny tavern lawn. Taking its name from the pleasant afterlife dreamed into being by sailors, cavalrymen, and other adventurous spirits, Fiddler’s Green gathers friends, good cheer, and a bit of magic to create a better world not someday, but now.
In ecclesiastical terms, the word “peculiar” refers to a district outside the jurisdiction of the Church. It’s also a good word for describing my own view of reality, and likely yours as well. And so here is a “peculiar parish magazine” for anyone who doesn’t feel the need to have their inner life directed by others. If it is peculiar that we wish to govern our bodies and souls ourselves, then let us be peculiar.
The conversation continues, and there is room for you in it. Each of us is on our own journey, both in this world and whatever lies beyond it. Sometimes the path is well lit; at other times it is obscured. Your wanderings have brought you here, and I hope you’ll stray for a while with me and the other souls gathered at Fiddler’s Green.
Clint Marsh [Publisher]
Description
A Peculiar Parish Edition by Nina Antonia & Nathaniel Winter-Hébert.
Even before his birth, the life of Oscar Wilde was one shaped by dark, otherworldly forces. From a childhood spent in the fabled lands of Tír na nÓg to his star-crossed romance with Lord Alfred Douglas, Wilde’s trajectory through the artistic and social worlds of his day seemed guided by strange fate, some of it prophesied in his most famous works, including Salomé and The Picture of Dorian Gray.
In this focused biographical account, author Nina Antonia examines the florid tapestry of the playwright’s tragic ascent and fall, revealing, as Wilde himself called it, “the note of doom that like a purple thread” ran through—and eventually cut short—the life of one of literature’s most celebrated and scandalous icons.
Nina Antonia’s other works include the novel The Greenwood Faun (Egaeus Press, 2017) and the collection Incurable (Strange Attractor Press, 2018), both of which explore the lives and works of Decadent-era poets.
A Purple Thread is designed and illustrated by Nathaniel Winter-Hébert, a Canadian artist whose work is familiar to readers of the British zines Hellebore and The Ghastling.
“An elegant prose meditation on the sense of the fateful in Oscar Wilde’s life and work.”
— Mark Valentine, Wormwoodian
