Wayward Wanderer

ROYAL SUN

Even though Lily Langtry was a great friend of Oscar Wilde, I flew well under the glow of the adored Royals. The Cleveland Street Scandal showed the lengths at which society wound go to hide any vice in the upper classes. In the towns, in the schools, in the great cities, in the empire itself, existed a conflict of attitudes, a typical Victorian schizophrenia. As I explored the dark side of the 19th century, the poverty and the orgiastic opportunities, I felt the ferocious need that a minority of Victorians had for a comprehensive, absolute social morality.