{
    "id": 501801,
    "slug": "oscar-wildes-crucifix-maarten-asscher",
    "nstc": null,
    "title": "Oscar Wilde's Crucifix",
    "subtitle": "A Biographical Experiment",
    "collection_title": null,
    "collection_part_number": null,
    "annotation": null,
    "description": "<p>While a student at Oxford, Oscar Wilde was courting a beautiful Dublin girl, Florence Balcombe, and on Christmas Day 1876 he presented her with a golden crucifix. Two years later, Florence surprised Oscar by suddenly marrying another young writer from Dublin, Bram Stoker, the future author of\u00a0Dracula.</p><br><p>Dutch writer Maarten Asscher uses that crucifix as a fulcrum to examine Wilde\u2019s early development as an artist, from a seminal trip to Greece to his whirlwind tour of America, including real-life encounters with Walt Whitman and Arthur Conan Doyle. Asscher draws on the complete panoply of Wilde scholarship to supplement historical fact with imaginative reconstruction, including a myth-busting account of Wilde\u2019s deathbed in Paris, and a fictional solution to the mystery of the crucifix delivered by none other than Sherlock Holmes. The result is a convincing and original interpretation of Victorian history, and a literary tour de force.</p>",
    "imprint": null,
    "language_code": "eng",
    "original_language_code": null,
    "page_count": 176,
    "duration_seconds": null,
    "publication_date_first": "2025-02-27",
    "publication_date_latest": "2025-05-01",
    "cover_url": null,
    "editions": [
        {
            "isbn": "9789403136097",
            "product_form": "BC"
        }
    ],
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    "created_at": "2025-09-19T14:36:39+00:00",
    "updated_at": "2025-11-01T00:43:29+00:00",
    "publisher": {
        "id": 6446,
        "slug": "de-bezige-bij",
        "name": "De Bezige Bij",
        "created_at": "2025-09-19T12:25:20+00:00",
        "updated_at": "2025-09-19T15:13:45+00:00"
    },
    "contributors": [
        {
            "id": 311554,
            "slug": "maarten-asscher-2",
            "key_names": "Asscher",
            "names_before_key": "Maarten",
            "prefix_to_key": null,
            "contributor_role": "A01",
            "readable_contributor_role": "Author"
        }
    ],
    "genres": [],
    "subjects": [
        {
            "scheme_identifier": "32",
            "scheme_version": null,
            "main_subject": false,
            "subject_code": "321",
            "created_at": "2025-09-19T14:36:39+00:00",
            "updated_at": "2025-09-19T14:36:39+00:00"
        }
    ],
    "campaigns": []
}