The Case of the Pederast's Wife

A young Victorian doctor seeks a miraculous cure for the ""pederast's wife."" This is a fascinating novel about the world of late Victorian England, the ""new"" medicine, sex and scandals, and a revealing portrait of the suffering woman who was in the shadows during the famous Oscar Wilde trial- his wife, Constance Wilde. Clare Elfman paints a vivid picture of this Victorian world: genteel rooms where gentlewomen buttoned to the throad and trapped in log-o-mutton sleeves take tea among the lady fern and aspidistra, while in hidden rooms a fin-de-siecle decadence culminates in the shocking trial of Oscar Wild for ""gross indecency.